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Water Officials Debate Waterless Urinals

Posted on: Saturday, 28 January 2006, 00:00 CST

By By: Gig Conaughton, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Jan. 27--SAN DIEGO -- Pleas for water conservation lost out to public health questions Thursday -- temporarily, at least -- when county water officials delayed pushing for legislation to protect "waterless" urinals after plumbers called them dangerous.

San Diego County Water Authority board members put off any action to sponsor waterless legislation in order to find studies about potential health concerns. Plumbers union representatives applauded the move.

"I think they need to look at this," said David Otterstein, of the United Association of Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 230.

But Klaus Reichardt, managing partner of Waterless -- the company that has been making the urinals for 15 years -- called the public health concerns "scare tactics" and said the concerns were over work and cash.

"The only thing that is going on here, from the union standpoint, is there's something going on where they think they are losing installations," Reichardt said.

Water Authority staff members told board members Thursday that they have been offering financial incentives to install waterless urinals -- which use a liquid, chemical seal to trap and "flush" urine without using water to wash it out -- for years.

Bill Jacoby, the Water Authority's director of public affairs and its former water resources manager, said that more than 200 such urinals have been installed in the San Diego County region -- including the San Diego Zoo, military bases, churches, restaurants, universities, and the Water Authority offices.

Water Authority board and staff members said the urinals can save a lot of water, something that is important in semiarid Southern California -- which relies upon water imported from Northern California and the Colorado River. Waterless officials claim a urinal can conserve up to 45,000 gallons of water a year by eliminating flushing.

However, Jacoby said, the standards council of the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials made changes to the Uniform Plumbing Code in December "which would not allow" waterless urinals.

California, like many states, is regulated by the Uniform Plumbing Code.

Jacoby and Water Authority staff members recommended Thursday that the board push to create a bill in the state Legislature to ensure that waterless urinals remain legal.

But Otterstein told board members that "peer-reviewed scientific journal articles" written by J. Phyllis Fox reported that nonflush urinals could, among other things, allow people to breath in sewer gases and pathogens, "including cholera, dysentery, E. coli, SARS, and other diseases."

Otterstein said Fox had a doctorate in sanitary engineering and more than 30 years engineering experience. But he could not say who employed Fox.

Otterstein also said that building managers with waterless urinals could help create health problems by refusing to replace the chemical "trap" seals to save money. The seals would break down, leading to bigger problems. He also said Fox concluded that waterless urinals could allow bacteria to grow along their walls. Water Authority officials said part of the maintenance required of waterless urinals was to manually wipe down urinal walls to replace the water-washing that normal urinals get.

Board members said they needed more information about the potential health concerns in light of Otterstein's testimony. But they wrangled over how to get that information.

Some board members moved to push for legislation asking that the state study the issue. Others called that a waste of time, and said Water Authority staff should look for independent studies to bring back to the board -- an action the full board eventually approved.

"If there is something out there, then we don't have to ask the state to do a study -- which is going to take them 14 years to do," board member Keith Lewinger said.

Staff members, said the one-month delay could very likely destroy any chance the Water Authority could push for legislation to protect waterless urinals in 2006, because the board's next meeting is Feb. 23, in the same week as the Legislature's deadline to introduce new bills.

However, officials from the state's department of building standards said that even with the changes to the Uniform Plumbing Code, builders would be able to use waterless urinals -- they would just have to be approved on a "case-by-case" basis.

Reichardt, meanwhile, said he believed that a search for health studies would show that waterless urinals are safe.

"I've been doing this for 15 years," he said. "The (county of San Diego's) plumbing department has my urinals in their building for the last 10 years. ... This is just part of the process."

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To see more of the North County Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nctimes.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: North County Times

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