Rethink Your Life!
Finance, health, lifestyle, environment, philosophy
The Work of Art and The Art of Work
Kiko Denzer on Art



Cob: Fw: Re: Problems with . . .(here are some modifications)

Sojourner sojournr at missouri.org
Sun Jul 11 21:03:32 CDT 1999


William Lewis wrote:
> 
> Human waste is something that must be carefully handled,
> but most folks think of the old ways (hole in ground) and
> don't know of all the problems these caused, since they
> didn't have a long discussion with the old country doctor
> before he died off.

And your point is . . . ????

Nobody, to my recollection, was proposing going out and digging a hole
in the ground and using that for waste elimination forever.

Did I miss something?  DID someone suggest such a thing?

As a matter of fact, "the old country doctor" was MY doctor until he
died at the age of well over 80 sometime in the early 80's.  My Dad, as
a matter of fact, will be turning 80 this year, and was raised in rural
Indiana, in fact grew up "on the po' side of town", in a tarpaper shack,
until his parents had scrimped and saved and scraped up the
where-withall to buy 2 acres from a farmer in the country, where they
built a 2 bedroom bungalow, hand dug the basement and well.

The Depression wasn't History to him, it was a major event in his life.

So I think I have a PRETTY good idea of the "conditions" under which
people were living, pre-public-sewage-treatment-plants.  Particularly
people with little or no money.  And some people lived clean and some
didn't.

You complain of privies that were contaminating the ground water - well,
that hardly constitutes a properly built composting outhouse, now does
it?  The point of a properly built and functioning outhouse is that it
WON'T contaminate anything, because it is quickly and safely rotting
away into nice, useable fertilizer.

Doesn't smell, doesn't contaminate the surroundings, doesn't constitute
a health hazard.

An improperly built outhouse, an improperly used and maintained septic
system, both are major health hazards.  No one has said any
differently.  Yet here we seem to be faced with an attitude that says
just having a septic system installed means you are OK, and just having
an outhouse (even a properly built, properly used, properly maintained
one) is NOT OK.

Get a clue.  A poorly maintained, improperly used septic system is a
bigger health hazard than an outhouse, if only because people get
complacent about their sewage when they have a septic system.  Witness
the extreme silliness of the person who, not bothering to educate
herself about proper septic system maintenance and use, grew veggies
atop a leaking septic field and then was all surprised that her family
got sick, and then took that as proof that All Outhouses Are Bad. 
That's not an indication of the dangers of having an outhouse, that's an
indication of failing to take the proper steps to handle one's own waste
because "the septic system takes care of it" like magic.

There is not a thing wrong with an outhouse, a composting toilet, or a
sawdust toilet, when installed, maintained, and used in the proper
fashion.  And its not hard to do that, there is no special knowledge
required.  It's not rocket science.  And its not anymore inherently
dangerous than using a chainsaw, driving a tractor, or cooking on a gas
stove.  All of which come along with certain safety considerations,
which, if the user doesn't bother to learn about or follow, does not
make the system itself inherently Bad And Dangerous.

Holly ;-D