San Franciscans weigh renaming sewage plant after Bush

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco voters, never thrilled with George W. Bush, may give the president a parting shot in November by naming a sewage plant after him.

A ballot measure aimed at deriding the Republican president by renaming the city's newest sewage plant qualified on Thursday after organizers submitted 7,168 signatures to the local Department of Elections, officials said.

"What we are doing is satire, part of the proud tradition of skewering political figures that dates back to the Revolution," organizers said on their website, here

"In our opinion it's well earned, for here you have a president who is oblivious to the consequences of his actions, for which thousands have paid with their lives."

The site, which calls itself the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco, shows the presidential seal with an eagle holding two toilet plungers.

San Francisco has long been a liberal stronghold and is a center of the movement against the Iraq war, which has been championed by Bush, who leaves office in January.

Tony Flores, acting assistant manager for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns and operates the plant, said the name change for the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant, would cost about $50,000.

In 2004, the plant won an environmental award from the Bush administration for operations and maintenance.

"Many of our staff are very proud of the work they do every day," said commission spokesman Tony Winnicker. "They won't think it's an honor."

(Editing by Eric Beech)