Environmental Law

San Francisco Smells

By STEPHEN HOLZER

            San Francisco, always known for sense of progressiveness, is now finding that such sense conflicts with its sense of smell.

            The City has heavily pushed low-flow toilets in order to preserve water use.  Now it turns out that the low flow of water has resulted in sludge backing up in the City?s sewer pipes.  The sludge back up, in turn, has caused a rotten-egg type smell to permeate parts of the city.

            To combat this smell, among other things, the City is spending $14 million for a supply of bleach to disinfect the sewer water.  However, this move has itself generated controversy.  Some environmentalists are arguing that, rather than pouring bleach into the sewers, the City should find a way to break down the bacteria naturally.

            In the meantime, the water-saving smell-a-thon continues. 

This posting also appears in my column for the Valley News Group of newspapers, San Fernando Valley, California.

Full post as published by Environmental Legal Blogs on March 03, 2011 (boomark / email).