The Public Policy: Toilets on the Potomac
Lieberman, Ben
THE PUBLIC POLICY by Ben Lieberman Toilets on the Potomac there strongest consumer backlash against We' not running out of water, but our commodes are. a product in recent years, and...
...Clearly, Knollenberg and his 97 co-sponsors believe it should be the former...
...The fact that many Americans pay less than one cent per gallon (water and sewer rates combined) helps to explain why these parsimonious potties never caught on before the mandate...
...For example, Department of Energy (DOE) bureaucrats are currently moving to ban the popular top-loading clothes washer designs in favor of supposedly earth-friendly front loaders that cost several hundred dollars more and have certain performance drawbacks...
...T he real issue underlying Knollenberg's bill is not whether low-flush toilets are better or worse than high-flush toilets, but who should get to decide such things—individual consumers, or a special interest-driven federal government...
...Unfortunately, it is always hard to undo things in Washington, and Knollenberg's repeal measure still faces an uphill fight, notwithstanding its strong public support...
...To the extent there actually is a problem, the solution will not be found in our bathrooms...
...Acting as if 1.6 gpf toilets are a success story to be emulated, the federal government has now turned its attention to several other household appliances...
...The cheapest of its highest rated toilets costs $270...
...The measure was primarily pushed by a coalition of water oilets have once again become a curement procedures consequently came bureaucrats and environmental activists, T national issue...
...Indeed, a 1998 National Association of Home Builders' survey found that 72 percent of homebuilders consider the new toilets to be a problem...
...Though not entirely As a result of a little noticed amendment slow sellers...
...dissatisfaction has coalesced into perhaps flush more than once to clear out the 70 December t999/ January 2000 • The American Spectator bowl, which, in addition to being quite unpleasant, cuts into the water conservation purpose behind the law...
...Get the federal government out of our bathrooms," has become his rallying cry...
...a product in recent years, and Washington is taking notice...
...The only decent low-flush toilets are some of the new high-tech, pressure-assisted models that cost $200 more than conventional models...
...Kosmensky also informed members of Congress that some Michigan residents in the market for new toilets cross the border into Canada, where sales of higher-flush models are still legal...
...Those living inside the Beltway need look no further than one of their local public water utilities, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), to see a genuine example of wasted water...
...Hardly a ringing endorsement...
...Such are the lengths Americans must now go to get what they want...
...As a result of constituent complaints, Rep...
...Unfortunately, these new water-stingy Many complain that the new toilets BEN LIEBERMAN is a policy analyst with toilets do not work as well as their higher- require additional cleaning, and clog up the Competitive Enterprise Institute in flush predecessors, yet cost more...
...Such political meddling in water markets has resulted in oddities like rice paddies located in what would otherwise be California desert...
...But with each pass-forces allocated overhead than the real limited to 1.6 gallons per flush (or gpf, as ing year, as a few percent of the population cost of a GI commode—the media and the bureaucrats put it), less than half the moved into new houses or replaced old anti-military types ate it up, and pro- water of most pre-standards models...
...According to an August Washington Post story, the WSSC loses zo percent of its water through leaks in the system...
...In sum, better management of water resources would accomplish far more than all the low-flush toilets in the world ever could...
...ally putting environmental advocacy ahead of consumer advocacy and pulling its punches when evaluating politically correct products, chose its words carefully when discussing the performance of low flush toilets...
...flush models that had previously been of Pentagon waste...
...Even the 1.6 gpf toilet standard is not safe—from being tightened...
...But even Consumer Reports, with its reputation for occasion-44 Some Michigan residents in need of new toilets buy theirs in Canada, where sales of higher-flush models are still legal...
...Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich...
...toilets, consumer anger has grown...
...During a July 27 hearing, Knollenberg, who some now call the Patrick Henry of porcelain, informed a House subcommittee that his office has received several thousand calls, letters, and e-mails in support— eclipsing the level of public interest in just about everything else he and other members of Congress are working on...
...has introduced a bill, called the Plumbing Standards Improvement Act, to repeal the low-flush mandate...
...If Knollenberg's repeal measure fails, DOE retains authority under existing law to lower the standard, though the statutory language strictly forbids raising it...
...ing the 1980's, involved stories of as well as several plumbing fixture man nvo - Today, the toilet controversy swirling ufacturers who correctly foresaw a guar$500 toilets purchased by the military, around the Capitol is entirely different, anteed national market for expensive low-which quickly became a potent symbol and far more important to our daily lives...
...Glenn Haege, host of the nationally syndicated radio program "Ask the Handyman," provided all-too detailed descriptions of the difficulties many listeners have had with their low-flush toilets...
...Michigan home-builder Jerry Kosmensky complained that he often takes the heat from unhappy buyers who, even after being told of the federal requirement, "think I am joking—that I am making an excuse for the bad plumbing in their new home...
...Witnesses representing the plumbing fixtures industry pointed out that Consumer Reports editorialized against the repeal of the 1.6 gpf mandate...
...Out west, the federal government diverts massive amounts of water to agricultural interests, at rock-bottom prices subsidized by the American taxpayer...
...According to Terry Anderson, water policy expert and executive director of the Political Economy Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, "transferring just 5 percent of agricultural water to municipal uses would meet the needs of urban areas in the western United States for the next twenty-five years...
...Proponents insist that the newest of the low-flush toilets are perfectly good...
...Rather than beefing up maintenance to bring this figure down, the WSSC has, among other things, squandered $40 million on its lavish headquarters, replete with a man-made lake...
...The best the magazine could say in its most recent evaluation was that "some of the newer designs we tested for this report worked just fine—almost always on one flush...
...Further, the water conservation purpose behind this expensive and intrusive measure fails to, well, hold water...
...Knollenberg added that the public's anger and disappointment are directed not only at their poorly performing toilets, but at a government that would see fit to do this to them...
...Beyond the immediate aims of this bill, the low flush toilet controversy and its resolution may also serve as a sentinel for how annoying and intrusive Washington will become in the years ahead...
...Public more easily...
...OM The American Spectator • December r 9 9 /January 2000 71...
...The Plumbing Standards Improvement Act is well worth following...
...The first time, dur- under congressional scrutiny...
...Other witnesses confirmed that the problems are real and widespread...
...Water is affordable and plentiful throughout most of the United States...
...Those areas where water is scarce or where sewage treatment facilities are nearing capacity can deal with these issues at the local level, and likely in smarter ways than those chosen by Washington...
...It stirred no controversy at true—the high "prices" had more to do to the massive 1992 Energy Policy Act, all the time, as the general public had no with the way accountants in the armed new toilets manufactured after 1994 are idea what was in store...
...Others say they now must Washington, D.C...
Vol. 32 • December 1999 • No. 12
