I heard something about the passengers getting a $500 voucher. That hardly seems like fair compensation for sitting next to sh!t for 7 hours.

Would it have been possible for CAL to fly out an extra airplane upon learning of this problem to pick up the passengers, and then to ferry the plane with the broken lavs back to EWR for repair? Although it would have cost CAL quite a bit of money it seems like it could have saved them a big PR problem.