Up for vote: George W. Bush Sewage Plant
SAN FRANCISCO — George W. Bush’s legacy is at stake in more than one way this election season, with an eponymous ballot proposal on the docket in California. The San Francisco proposal seeks to rename a local sewage processing plant after the current President.
The official proposal, Prop-R on the ballot, was authorized after the “Presidential Memorial Commission” garnered 12,000 signatures from local residents.
Brian McConnell, co-author of the proposition, told Water & Wasterwater Treatment that President Bush’s behavior in office warranted the namesake facility. “In President Bush’s case, we think that we will be cleaning up a substanital mess for the next ten or 20 years. The sewage treatment facility’s job is to clean up a mess, so we think it’s a fitting tribute.”
But not everyone is amused with the proposition. Local Republicans, including Howard Epstein, chair of the San Francisco Republican Party, called the initiative an abuse of the system and “loony bin direct democracy.” Even some taking issue with the Bush administration have a problem with the proposition, arguing that the President doesn’t deserve to have a waste treatment facility named after him.
Still many find humor in the proposition. Bright Winn, a San Francisco plumber told the San Francisco Chronicle, “[Bush] has always done well for the affluent of America, and anyone that does well for the affluent should be named for the effluent.”
Read more here.
The official website of the proposal can be found here.
Circle of Blue’s east coast correspondent based in New York. He specializes on water conflict and the water-food-energy nexus. He previously worked as a political risk analyst covering equatorial Africa’s energy sector, and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa. Contact: Cody.Pope@circleofblue.org
