Flush The Plumbers

Yet another reason I can't stand unions...

Two Philadelphia officials declared their determination yesterday to clear the blockage from the city's waterless-urinals imbroglio so the Comcast Center tower can compete for the title of America's tallest green building.

State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo is personally trying to broker a sit-down on urinals with the Plumbers Union, Philadelphia building-code officials, and the Comcast Center's developer, spokesman Gary Tuma said in a telephone interview. Meanwhile, a source close to Mayor Street said that he, too, is negotiating privately to make something happen with the environmentally friendly technology.

"This will get done," the City Hall source quoted the mayor as saying.

Liberty Property Trust, which is building the 975-foot-tall Comcast Center, is seeking to change the building code so it can install the water-saving devices and have its skyscraper certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The 58-story Comcast Center could save 1.6 million gallons of water a year with the no-flush basins, advocates say.

But the influential Plumbers Union Local 690 has blocked the code change because the urinals lack water lines and therefore require less labor to install. City officials have so far deferred to the union, which is led by Edward Keenan, a close friend of Bob Brady, the Philadelphia congressman who also heads the city's Democratic Party.

...For years, the plumbers have successfully resisted attempts to modernize the building code and adopt changes that would make plumbing cheaper to install. Philadelphia is one of the few places in America, for example, that still requires cast-iron pipes for underground lines. Nearly everywhere else permits plastic pipes, which are 75 percent cheaper to buy and half as expensive to install.

In siding with the union on the urinal issue, city officials have argued the no-flush devices are still experimental.

In fact, waterless urinals have undergone years of intensive trials. Many cities, such as Seattle and Scottsdale, Ariz., actually mandate them in all government construction. Wal-Mart is starting to put them in its stores. Even the bathroom in the Taj Mahal - the one in India - adopted them.

Okay, forget the silly issue of getting the building certified by the "Green Building Council." The waterless urinals would save the city money and be environmentally friendly, and they're holding it up for the plumbers' union? Please.

This is insane, but it's not unexpected. The fact that the city has this much trouble getting waterless urinals approved isn't exactly a shining example of good governance. But the blame goes to the union -- you can't protect jobs by merely ignoring technological advances. Otherwise, people will be mocking you for having less advanced bathrooms than the Taj Mahal.