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No deposit, no return – once depleted and compressed, it’s gone forever. They’ve lowered the water table so drastically the river has disappeared! So, what’s a continually expanding city to do? Draw water from the Colorado River, of course. Unfortunately, several other states have had the same idea and they have all based their use formulas on peak flows during ideal conditions, not those that occur during times of drought. The consensus is that they have just 50 years of water left if they continue to expand and place greater demands on available resources.
I also received this e-mail from John Morrill, energy manager for Arlington County, Va. “We have one where I work (a local government office building), and user satisfaction is fine (as fine as user satisfaction could be with something like a urinal). Odor is nonexistent. You’ve probably read that the key to the waterless urinals is their EcoTrap, a self-contained, disposable vertical trap containing a blue oil solution that keeps urine, odor and sewer gas from escaping. Our custodians replace the EcoTrap every 6-8 weeks, per specs, without trouble and maintenance is a breeze. As a result of our field experiment, they are becoming the specified urinal of choice in our new buildings, especially those seeking ‘green’ credentials. It’s our way of helping the Chesapeake Bay (and the load on our water pollution plant).”
You can learn more about the waterless urinal at www.waterless.com and, yes, I signed off on the request for the Harley factory. Dave Yates owns F.W. Behler, a contracting company in York, Pa. He can be reached by phone at 717/843-4920 or by e-mail at .
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Not everyone has his or her head in the sand in Tucson, though, and during a visit to the Desert Museum, I came across a waterless urinal in the men’s room. The sign placed above it gave a brief explanation and noted the saving of some 70,000 gal. of water per year! There was no odor, no mineral buildup around the drain and the fixture surface completely drained itself into the chemical trap.
What also impressed me is the way the urinal’s design and surface finish make all the urine find the bottom and go through the trap. I haven’t noticed any lingering drops that could get smelly. The bowl is slightly wider than some urinals, so it offers a bigger target for those with, um, poor aim. The waterless urinal has been in for a little over a year, and is legit by our use.
