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Old 09-08-2003, 09:23 AM
briancady413
 
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Default Toilet for Cabin

Maybe this isn't the issue, but there's litte environmentally wrong
with a well-run outhouse. I once saw a wonderful, and tastefully done,
little pamphlet on how to run them right, traditionally. Well-run,
odor is little and mild.
There's not much environmentally wrong with a well-run cesspool-toilet
system, except a bit of extra water pumping.
These both assume good sites, in terms of soils, which I don't know
how to determine.
A buddy does. He also designs alternative wastewater, or waste
treatment systems. Please let me know if you'd like his name and
number. Also a guy I know set up a real simple, economical, easy to
operate two bucket system that worked great for years, if a bit
unconventially. While it seems beneath your freinds style and grace,
list-lurkers might find it suited them individually. In knowing the
set-up, I can see that it could actually be even easier to run and
simpler with one bucket and a steep funnel and hose. I welcome
inquiries on it.

Brian Cady

Wilkinson wrote in message ...
My father is looking to replace his current outhouse and indoor toilet
(not particularly sound in any way, but grandfathered due to age) with
something more ecologically sound and maybe even legal. This is a cabin
that gets maybe 1-3 months' use a year, on a lake, in New Hampshire.
He's about 75-80 feet from the lake, and maybe 15 feet higher.

This would be something usable by a variety of relatives who visit
irregularly, and would not want to be trained in a complicated toilet,
carry urine to the garden, or anything else like that. On the other
hand, it doesn't have to be exactly a flush toilet for them to use it,
either. Gray water is handled with a French drain system, which seems
to be adequate.

We've looked at composting toilets, incinerator toilets (the neighbor
who has one of those said that it takes about 1/2 hour to cool down
enough to be used again -- a problem when there are children and old
people in the house), and a holding tank that would be pumped out
yearly. I suppose there's a cesspool, too, but that seems like an
awfully expensive option.

Ideas?

thanks
Wendy