Now, don’t poo-poo this idea for a Valentine’s Date…. The sweet scent of sewage may not sound romantic, but for lovers of urban infrastructure, the Department of Environmental Protection is offering a Valentine’s morning tour of the Newtown Creek Wastewater treatment plant.

Plant superintendent Jim Pynn says the highlight of the tour will be the plant’s giant egg-shaped digesters, which break down the noxious waste into harmless sludge and gas. “We end it on top of the digester eggs with not only a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline, but the entire 53-acre Newtown plant,” Pynn said.

Pynn says each Valentine’s Day visitor will get a Hershey kiss – and at least something to talk about.

“Just imagine going home and saying, ‘Where did he take me on Valentine’s Day? I went to see the digester eggs in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.”

Photo: Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

And speaking of sewage, this reminds me of a dumb criminal story I heard a while back…

When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find an ill man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage.

A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake.

The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had.

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