Construction Sites Commit Potty Foul

There’s just no real genteel way to say this. A local business has complained to several Northwest Arkansas municipalities that many residential and some commercial contractors don’t provide adequate sanitary facilities for their workers.

Cities are supposed to require contractors to equip work sites with portable toilets. Allegedly, more often than not locally workers are being told to “hit the trees” when the feeling moves them.

We’ll spare you the most graphic details. But suffice to say included among the accusations are that workers frequently urinate down bath tub drains or leave floor boards askew so they can relieve themselves until construction is completed. (Yet another reason to avoid doing that crawl space work).

According to Springdale city codes 7.19 through 7.21, portable toilets must be provided on construction sites where 25 or more people are present for more than four hours. The ratio is supposed to be one portable toilet for every 100 people on site, “or fractions thereof.”

In other words, if 25 people work four hours, that means one portable toilet. Other Northwest Arkansas codes are very similar.

Little Rock, by comparison, has looser language in section 3311.2 of its codes. It simply says, “adequate sanitary facilities for the convenience of all workmen shall be provided.”

No word yet on how the cities will respond, but we suspect some spot inspections may be coming down the pike.