Re: 90 Years of the Steinhart Aquarium

11/08/13 - posted by Frank Dunnigan

Tim’s comments reminded me about an old brouhaha between the Plumbers’ Union and the City. It seems that back in the 1960s, as I recall, the union had an agreement with SF that specified only metal pipe could be used in City installations. Problem was, that at the aquarium, salt water in many of the tanks would corrode galvanized pipes and react with copper in a way that was detrimental to the fish. It took a lot of wrangling to create an exemption that allowed the aquarium to use plastic plumbing in some of their installations. P-Rose—any recollections of this from your days at City Hall?