Posted by David Sherman on Monday, September 29, 2003 at 6:37PM :
In Reply to: Re: Wow ! posted by DanaS. on Monday, September 29, 2003 at 5:47PM :
I don't think a normal outhouse is an approved
"on-site sewage disposal system" for the FS anymore, even in areas where the county still lets people use them for their cabins. I haven't seen a real outhouse in a campground for years, unless it was way out in the boonies and built by the locals and the FS hadn't gotten around to burning it down yet. Nowadays it seems a campground has to have a sealed vault toilet or no toilet at all, even if that means the woods are full of digusting piles.
We have about 6 campgrounds in this valley, no normal outhouses, and one state-of-the-art concrete, steel, and plastic, solar-ventilated sealed pit toilet that's never been pumped and has rarely even been used. It seems most people don't have the urge to go 5 miles to the official toilet when they get the urge to go. I'd rather see a normal outhouse, or just an "out" (an "outhouse" with no "house") in each campground, rather than one fancy unit that nobody uses. It might not meet bureaucratic standards of sanitation, but neither do wads of toilet paper and turds strewn around in the bushes, or not even in the bushes at all. Of course if all campers used a shovel, that would also solve the problem.
Either way, I admire the gang that's going to pump/siphon out that one toilet. That's way beyond the call of duty.