Porcelain god about to demand annual tithe of $100 million

Flushing a toilet is about to get really expensive.

Finalizing an agreement with the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Kansas City, Missouri, has agreed to spend $2.5 billion upgrading its sewer system. The work will begin in 2014.

Karl Brooks, the regional administrator of the EPA, announced the consent decree on Tuesday at the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center, near the occasionally foul-smelling Brush Creek. Calling the agreement a “landmark commitment,” Brooks said Kansas City was about to embark on the largest infrastructure project in its history.