Local
Experts hope sanitation supply meets demand
By: Leah Fabel
Examiner Staff Writer
January 19, 2009
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Experts say that even if only 1 million people show up near the National Mall on Inauguration Day, there will not be enough portable toliets to meet the demand. (AP)
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“Basically, you’ll have sewage rolling down the streets,” said Roy Morris, a sales manager with Maryland’s United Site Services, providing about half of the Mall’s portable toilets. Morris, only half-joking about the sewage, said the 7,500 regular portable units and 1,200 handicapped units are far fewer than the 13,000 needed.
“They’ve got a 60-gallon holding capacity,” he said. “Typically, that’ll be filled by 75 people in a six-hour period.”
According to Morris’ formula, a crowd of 1.5 million people would produce 1.2 million gallons of waste. The portable toilets in place have a capacity of about 522,000 gallons. It was announced late last week that additional indoor facilities would be opened around the Mall, but the outdoor accommodations are still expected to bear the brunt of the burden.
Despite the warnings, Barack Obama’s inaugural organizers said the toilet count was adequate and the Mall’s natural beauty would not be sullied.
November’s wild-eyed estimates that 5 million people would be in town for Tuesday’s presidential inauguration likely won’t prove true, but may have helped get the level of preparation at least to its current level.
Politicians and planners “have been doing everything in their power to get the highest estimates and play those out,” said Maggie Daniels, a professor of tourism and event management at George Mason University. “You prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
The first estimates of a crowd of 4 million came from The Washington Post in mid-November, citing “District and federal officials.” The following day, Mayor Adrian Fenty tacked on another million. Within hours, 4 million to 5 million — or about one in every 70 men, women and children in the United States — was the number cited around the world.
And in applying for and eventually receiving last week emergency status under the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Fenty and other regional leaders said 1.5 million to 2 million people were expected, less than half the initial conjectures.
But if, as hoped, the entire historic affair goes off without a hitch, Daniels said all costs and crowd estimates will have been worth it.
“This is not unlike the Olympic games, but abbreviated,” Daniels said. “We have to really impress a lot of people in a short period of time.”
