-
Apr 24, 2008 11:14 pm US/Central
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
I-TEAM: Minnesota Flushing Away Chance To Go Green
(WCCO)
Grand Canyon National Park, NASA Space Flight Center, Heathrow Airport, The Rose Bowl and the Taj Mahal.
What do you think all these places have in common?
They, along with many others, have all taken the flush out of urinals.
Its part of a worldwide effort to conserve one of the earth's most rapidly diminishing natural resources -- not oil or gas -- but water.
The last three years, WCCO-TV has explored cleaner ways to power our lives in Project Energy and found going green needs a bit of investigation.
Right now more than 25 countries around the world, including most of the United States, are installing flushless urinals.
And depending on what it's replacing, one waterless urinal can save up to 40,000 gallons of water a year, but the I-TEAM found that you won't see them here in Minnesota.
Why they're outlawed, is an interesting story.
Water defines who we are in Minnesota -- a finite resource that's becoming more and more critical to our very lives.
In this Land of 10,000 Lakes, the largest in the nation, Lake Superior in Duluth, water conservation is still an important issue.
One of the most effective ways to save water is a water free urinal, but Minnesota is the only state that outlaws them.
Why?
Tim Mahoney is a pipefitter and DFL legislator representing the people of Saint Paul.
"Do you feel that you also represent the union in any way?" asked Don Shelby.
"I suppose I do," said Mahoney.
Mahoney wrote the law prohibiting waterless urinals.
Current Commissioner of Labor and Industry, Steve Sviggum, was Speaker of the Minnesota House when the law passed last year.
It definitely flew under the radar for most members of the legislature -- including Sviggum himself.
"If you had 10 that knew about the prohibition to the waterless urinals, that probably would be a large number," said Sviggum.
However, Mahoney defended the law at the State Capitol just last week.
"Do you know how often you gotta wash out the urinals?" Mahoney said on the floor of the legislature.
Mahoney likes to tell the story of his first experience with a waterless urinal. It happened at a wayside rest stop on Highway 35. Here's what Mahoney says he was told when he stopped by.
"Oh well you know you gotta dump a couple buckets of water in them all the time," Mahoney said.
"One pail full," said 88-year-old wayside rest custodian Carl Myrvold.
One pail full, once a month, he told us on our visit.
"They said they had an odor and they kept the window open," said Mahoney.
But Myrvold invited us in to take a smell test.
"I'm willing to guarantee that they don't smell," Myrvold said. "And if I could smell something here I'd be right there to change it and take care of it right now. No, they're good."
Plumbers have not been supportive of waterless urinals and have fought against them in other states arguing they will impact jobs.
Mahoney said he outlawed waterless urinals to allow more time for building codes to be written.
He said that's not a job for legislators.
"Two hundred and one part time people should not make code. It should be done by people who understand what's going to happen," Mahoney said.
He wants the codes and specifications designed by a board of professional plumbers.
"Whenever you do code, the baseline for code is that it has to be safe," said Mahoney.
However, the I-TEAM investigation finds the state's Plumbing Advisory Council has had proof of the safety of waterless urinals for years -- proof it ignored.
The minutes from a meeting in 2003, it said the Plumbing Advisory Council was asked to establish a test site for waterless urinals. According to the minutes, "There was no second to the motion and the motion was not acted on."
However, a test site has been up and running in downtown Duluth for six years -- long before they were outlawed.
"We want to save energy, and we want to save taxpayer dollars," said Tom Romundstad, a St. Louis County worker.
Tom Romundstad said St. Louis County has done extensive scientific testing on waterfree urinals.
"In fact they are more hygienic than a urinal that does flush due to the lack of the aerosol effect," Romundstad said.
That's the effect when the rush of air and water carry bacteria from a flush into the restroom.
The water itself promotes the growth of bacteria and research shows other objections just don't hold water.
"Do you have any idea what happens to the pipes when you put straight urine into it without water?" asked Mahoney.
"UCLA did a study, the University of Arizona did a study, the Washington State Department of Ecology, Ayers and Associates of Florida have done a study," said Romundstad. "And they have found that undiluted urine is not a problem on pipes. That's what we were told. And we haven't seen it, so."
In fact, in Duluth, they've taken photos of the pipes every year to show no corrosion or build up.
Remember Mahoney's plan to outlaw waterless urinals to give the Plumbing Board more time to write code? There's a catch.
"You passed a law that said don't put any waterless urinals in the state of Minnesota until the board has considered them," said Shelby. "Yet manufacturers have come to the board and made presentations and asked to be heard, and the response from the board has been, no, that's against the law."
"That's probably a little bit more than Catch 22," said Mahoney, "That seems a little silly. I think there's probably a way to word some kind of an amendment onto some bill coming down that says that they should be able to figure out rules whether there's a prohibition or not."
And a man of his word, Mahoney sponsored an amendment that passed in the House on Thursday removing the prohibition of waterless urinals.
That bill goes to the Senate now for a vote.
After five years of delaying tactics, the Plumbing Board is scheduled to discuss waterless urinals next Tuesday.
Read Some Of The Sources:Study On Testing for Ammonia Odor from UrinalsRead Letter About Urine CorrosionRead About Falcon Waterfree Technologies' Waterfree UrinalsSee The Energy Efficiency Of Waterless UrinalsUnderstand The Technology Of UrinalsSee How The University of Southern Maine Is Making Waterless WorkRead How The Army Changed To Waterless Urinals
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)