Raising an Environmental Stink, Inadvertently, in Redmond

I'm filing this one in my "Law of Unintended Consequences" file.

As a Planning Commissioner for the City of Redmond, I have often and intentionally said altruistic things like “we must be stewards of our environment" and “the city should lead by example with innovative environmental approaches". I had no idea how big a stink my suggestions would cause in the long term and I certainly never imagined that when I said "steward", others would hear "sewer".

If you are male and you live or work in or near to Redmond, WA, you MUST check out the new, “self-composting” and water-free urinals at our sparkling, new City Hall. The odors these modern technological marvels emit serve as a constant reminder to me that the things we say (and do) can and sometimes do have unintended consequences. Lord knows, I've said and done enough things in my day that were just plain wrong to suffer the addition of misinterpretations of my well-meaning comments and actions.

My friend Laura John sent me this in an email recently.

"Within the next few months, Norcal Waste, a garbage hauling company that collects San Francisco’s trash, will begin a pilot program under which it will use biodegradable bags and dog-waste carts to pick up droppings at a popular dog park.

The droppings will be tossed into a contraption called a methane digester, which is basically a tank in which bacteria feed on feces for weeks to create methane gas."

https://msnbc.msn.com/id/11488372/

Korby, can you work at getting this in Redmond? ;-)

For as long as I am a Planning Commissioner in the City of Redmond, the words “Methane digester” will never leave my lips, so help me God.