Toilets

Nearly a month after portable toilets were installed on Skid Row sidewalks, some social service groups and businesses have filed complaints about drug use and sanitation concerns with the outhouses, officials said. "The toilet became a crack house the very first day it was in place" outside the Salvation Army's Safe Harbor, said the center's chaplain, Maj. Patricia Jolley. "Our staff is telling us that (people) are using cocaine in those houses in the evening."

People come and go on Los Angeles' skid row without much notice, but when 26 portable toilets disappeared from the sidewalks, it quickly became a very big deal. Since the toilets were hauled away Tuesday evening by the company that owns them, the homeless have been forced to use streets and alleys as bathrooms, skid row's leading toilet activist has leaped into action, and the mayor's office has gotten involved.

Santa Monica officials have announced that residents who want to conserve water and save money have until the end of June to take advantage of a city-run program that helps people pay the cost of having their toilets retrofitted to low-flush systems. Homeowners may hire their own plumbers and receive a $75 rebate from the city. Or officials will purchase the toilets and hire the plumbers at a cost to the resident of $35.

The city has approved a six-month pilot project to install as many as 30 portable toilets for homeless people on Skid Row. The Board of Public Works said the program, which was proposed by social service providers but opposed by many businesses, could be canceled at any time if problems develop. "This is a temporary solution," said Public Works Commission President Charles Dickerson. "This is not the optimal solution to homelessness. This is just a Band-Aid."

In an effort to conserve water, the Anaheim Public Utilities Department is offering 1,200 new ultra-low-flush toilets and urinals to city schools. The $240,000 program will save about 128-million gallons of water over the 10-year life of the equipment, officials say. The new fixtures use only 1.6 gallons per flush, compared to five to seven gallons per flush on standard models.

Los Angeles' Skid Row was rocked again Friday by a tempest in a toilet bowl as a social worker defied City Hall by delivering portable outhouses to the area only to haul them away seven hours later under pressure from city officials. "It's very sad. . . . I'm extraordinarily disappointed," said Alice Callaghan, director of the Las Familias del Pueblo service center.

Saying the program is probably not worth the cost, the Simi Valley City Council rejected a plan Monday to continue offering $100 rebates to residents who replace their high-volume flush toilets with models that use much less water. "I don't happen to think this is money well-spent," Councilwoman Judy Mikels said. She proposed the funds be used instead for programs that result in greater water conservation.

The Korean Youth and Community Center is sponsoring a water conservation campaign that allows area residents to trade in their toilets for models that use less water. No fees, taxes or extra charges are attached to the trade-in offer, which allows residents to save money and conserve water. The toilets offered at the center use only about 1 1/2 gallons of water per flush, as opposed to conventional models that use three to five gallons.

The question is, where should homeless people go . . . when they need to go? There are few easy answers on Skid Row, where a plan to scatter 33 portable toilets on the sidewalks of downtown Los Angeles was scuttled at the last minute Wednesday by Mayor Tom Bradley.

Chinese researchers have discovered a 2,000-year-old toilet, complete with running water, a stone seat and a comfortable armrest. Archeologists found the antique facility in the tomb of a king of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 24) who believed his soul would need to enjoy human life after death, the official New China News Agency said Wednesday.