Green Plans Down The Drain

The plumbers' unions in Philadelphia are fighting an effort to create one of America's largest 'green' buildings.

The local plumbers union is blocking Liberty's plan to install no-flush, water-saving urinals in the men's rooms at the Comcast Center. Without them, the finished skyscraper would guzzle an extra 1.6 million gallons of water a year, and Liberty could have trouble obtaining a coveted seal of approval from the U.S. Green Building Council.

If the 975-foot Comcast Center fails to win the council's certification, the title of tallest green building will fall instead to New York's 962-foot Bank of America Tower, going up across from Manhattan's Bryant Park - complete with waterless urinals.

Once again, New York wins. And all because it has better toilets.

Edward Keenan, the head of Local 690, which represents plumbers in Philadelphia and its suburbs, did not return phone calls for this story. But those involved in the urinal debate say the plumbers object to the waterless devices because they require less labor to install than the traditional kind.

This just screams out for some witty, scatalogical anti-labor pun but alas, the muse is absent.  Maybe a glass of fine boxed-wine this evening will cause its return.