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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (6162)	4/4/2006 6:14:21 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 36917

Plumbers clog up skyscraper By Deborah Yao ASSOCIATED PRESS April 4, 2006 PHILADELPHIA This city's hoped-for bragging rights as home of America's tallest environmentally friendly building could go down the toilet. In a city where organized labor is a force to be reckoned with, the plumbers union has been raising a stink about a developer's plans to install 116 waterless, no-flush urinals in what will be Philadelphia's biggest skyscraper. Developer Liberty Property Trust says the urinals would save 1.6 million gallons of water a year at the 57-story Comcast Center, expected to open next year. But the union put out the word that it doesn't like the idea of waterless urinals -- fewer pipes mean less work. The city's licensing department, whose approval is needed for waterless urinals, has not rendered a decision. The mayor's office has stepped in to try to save the urinals, which use a cartridge at the base to trap odors and sediment as waste passes through. The office is telling the plumbers that the city's building boom will provide plenty of work for them and that even waterless urinal systems need some plumbing connections, said Stephanie Naidoff, city commerce director. Philadelphia's unions periodically have put the city in a difficult spot. For years, convention groups were canceling bookings at the Pennsylvania Convention Center because of difficulties working with six unions. New rules were established in 2003 to allow convention groups to deal instead with a middleman, a labor supplier. A few months later, the electricians union temporarily shut off power and picketed the center in a dispute with the supplier. In 2004, the MTV reality show "The Real World" briefly pulled up stakes after union workers, in a dispute over hiring practices, picketed the house the cast was to live in. The show's producers and labor leaders eventually negotiated a deal to bring the show back. Waterless urinals were introduced in the early 1990s. Thousands are in use across the country, including at places such as the San Diego Zoo, Walt Disney World and the Rose Bowl.