Acorns From An Okie

$2M for “Waterfree Urinal” Study

Allen October 21st, 2005

I read where the House wants to divert $2M to a Michigan environmental technology firm that markets itself as the "world leader for waterfree urinals.

Quoting from the article:

The initiative, which could help Falcon Waterfree Technologies expand its budding military contracting business, was added by appropriators even as they cut $2.9 billion from operations and maintenance accounts across the military services in an attempt to focus more spending on the global war on terrorism.

The budgetary add-on is illustrative of an increasing tendency in Congress to tack earmarks onto operations budgets, the accounts that typically pay for ammunition, depot repair work and other short-term military needs.

While the total dollars allocated for these projects out of the operations and maintenance budget has not grown in recent years, the number of earmarks has, as lawmakers maneuver to slip funding for a broad swath of pet projects into all areas of the budget.

So who asked for the "waterfree urinal study"?

The main congressional backer for the urinal earmark is Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., a self-described environmentalist who wrote a letter to Young in March, requesting $2 million to pay for the study.

Falcon is located in Ehlers’ Grand Rapids district, but the seven-term congressman said he did not specify Falcon’s technologies in his request, nor did he direct that the money be used to pay for any of the company’s products.

…

Ehlers, who said he has used waterfree urinals "six or seven times" in the last several months, said he became interested in the issue after learning that the military plans to install new bathrooms at several installations.

I too have used "waterfree urinals" many times over the years. I will be willing to perform the study for half the price of the current study.

Here is the preliminary plans. We can flush out the details (all puns intended) after I get my funding.