With 435 members of Congress elected from across the country, it is hard to keep track of all of the names. Everyone knows Newt and Dick Gephart, but beyond that, it takes some act of publicity to gain name recognition. Representative Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI) is doing just that with the plumbing industry. Unless you haven’t read a plumbing magazine lately, he is the congressman that has proposed that the federal government get out of the plumbing business. In short, his bill will remove the minimum flow rates for showers, kitchen sink faucets, lavatory faucets, water closets and urinals.
Many plumbing contractors have been rallying around Knollenberg’s bill, the Plumbing Standards Act of 1997. The comments are, “See, we told you the 1.6 gpf water closets were no good,” or “More water in my shower, more water to flush it away.”