Installing a composting toilet.

[OGO Composting Toilet]

Saw your post. Thanks for the shout out, we love your final pics you sent us! We are sharing it because you did an awesome job!

We are here to help anybody else looking to update their cabin. Learn more about us at ogotoilets.com

 

[thinwater]

The bay is a little weird. It's NDZ for black water because there is nowhere that you are 3nm away from anything but gray water is allowed...except in the NNDZWRMITT (No-No-Discharge Zone, we really mean it this time!)

Periodically the Maryland General Assembly takes up potential legislation requiring the tanking and pumping out of gray water but it hasn't come to pass yet. I dunno what Virginia is doing about their portion of the bay. Let's be real though- the Baltimore sewage treatment plant overflows more fecal waste into the Patapsco River and hence the Chesapeake in a single heavy rain than all the recreational boaters would do in an entire year.

It's not that you are not 3 miles from anything. The Chesapeake Bay is regulated as inshore by definition and falls entirely withing the 3-mile limit. For example, the Chesapeake Bay is inside the 3-mile limit in its entirety and is the state waters of Virginia and Maryland. However, the Puget Sound is shared with Canada, and thus is not the state water of Washington.

And complaints about overflows are slightly off topic, like saying another guy is speeding faster than you; it does not make either one right. And the POTW problem is also "us," in that it is our tax dollars and we would rather spend them on more visible projects.

 

[kent_island_sailor]

And complaints about overflows are slightly off topic, like saying another guy is speeding faster than you; it does not make either one right. And the POTW problem is also "us," in that it is our tax dollars and we would rather spend them on more visible projects.

Not really -when hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage get dumped ever year, it is pretty annoying to have the state going nuts over 1 gallon.

The town of Centreville had a big new development go in. The sewer plant operator asked why the flow rate through the plant never changed. He was fired for asking. Eventually someone checked it out and the new development was connected on the DOWNSTREAM side of the treatment plant :angry:   But all the boats on the river have holding tanks, even though there are no pumpouts anywhere around

 

[thinwater]

Not really -when hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage get dumped ever year, it is pretty annoying to have the state going nuts over 1 gallon.

The town of Centreville had a big new development go in. The sewer plant operator asked why the flow rate through the plant never changed. He was fired for asking. Eventually someone checked it out and the new development was connected on the DOWNSTREAM side of the treatment plant :angry:   But all the boats on the river have holding tanks, even though there are no pumpouts anywhere around

You see a bad thing, but it does NOT strengthen your argument. You do you.

 

[Zonker]

Incinerating toilets. Been around for decades

https://incinolet.com/

 

[chester]

Incinerating toilets. Been around for decades

https://incinolet.com/

• “No “stirring” of the waste or shoveling it out!”  
  

now, i grew up on a farm and I have actually shovelled shit...cow shit, horse shit, not sure how i feel about shoveling human shit...ok, i do know how i feel about shoveling human shit...eeeewww.

 

[kent_island_sailor]

You see a bad thing, but it does NOT strengthen your argument. You do you.

Sorry - this is a pet peeve of mine. Back in the day I sold and installed LectaSans. They were not cheap to buy nor to get installed, but they saved you from hauling tanks of sewage around and treated the waste quite well.

The various busy-bodies got onto making them effectively useless by creeping NDZs, but somehow can't be arsed to fix sewer systems that dump more raw sewage in a few days than every boat in the area could manage in several years :angry:

 

[randii]

You are both right.

Neither point excludes the other, if you dismiss the relativity.

You see a bad thing, but it does NOT strengthen your argument. 

Small discharges are a problem.

... sewer systems that dump more raw sewage in a few days than every boat in the area could manage in several years :angry:

Large discharges are a bigger problem.

I don't want to anchor, swim, or sleep next to or downstream of either.

"Think globally, act locally." -- P. Geddes

Let's do BOTH. Let's manage our own waste stream AND hold bulk discharges to account. ESPECIALLY repeat offenders. Reducing bulk discharge will have the biggest impact, and reducing smell discharges will help ensure that thru don't grow to become a larger problem.

 

[chester]

You are both right.

Neither point excludes the other, if you dismiss the relativity.

Small discharges are a problem.

Large discharges are a bigger problem.

I don't want to anchor, swim, or sleep next to or downstream of either.

"Think globally, act locally." -- P. Geddes

Let's do BOTH. Let's manage our own waste stream AND hold bulk discharges to account. ESPECIALLY repeat offenders. Reducing bulk discharge will have the biggest impact, and reducing smell discharges will help ensure that thru don't grow to become a larger problem.

oh...you...being all rational and shit 

 

[randii]

...and shit 

I see what you did there.

 

[Kris Cringle]

We have a small 100' wide public beach in our harbor. As part of the Maine healthy beaches, Goodies Beach in Rockport is regularly tested for safe bacteria levels for swimmers. Although the harbor is thought to be 'clean' due to our tidal flushing, it tests among the highest of the state and may be closed a few times a year. 

Everybody pointed to the storm sewer outflow pipe in the harbor(the large trickling pipe in photo).

First; must be sewage overflows during big rains: Rockport sends it's sewage to Camden for treatment, under a contract (we have no sewage treatment in Rockport).

Camden's treated sewage outlflow pipe is in Camden Harbor, 2 NM away. 



Next,  they tested for leaking sewage lines of harbor area residences(there are no private septic systems in the harbor/village. All tested remarkably leak-free. 

Then an engineering study found that 53% of the high testings were during low rain periods (we get very little rain). That put a 200K UV light filtration on the outflow on hold that would have helped only during a rain event.  

Dogs, yep dogs got the raised eyebrow. They are banned from Goodies Beach (except mine,...and a few other locals, but only in the off-season). Plus, we have fines for not picking up dog waste and many dog waste stations in town (3 alone in the harbor), regularly tended and stocked with bags. 

Bit of a mystery. We have about 400 pleasure and working boats in the harbor,...but a pump out at the docks that I see getting used, a few times a season. I've never had to wait nor seen other boats waiting. 

It's the dogs,..we always know, as boaters, it can't be the boats. 

 

[kdh]

In Rhode Island bacterial contamination is correlated to rainfall, and most beach closures happen after heavy rains. The number of sewer discharges has been lowered, but there's a remaining attribution to feces: bird, pet, horses, livestock, being washed into the bay in heavy rainfall. Where the water is shallowest it's most measurable.

With pleasure boats we all play our parts since the clean water act and pumpout stations.

Boston Harbor was a cesspool in the 80s before the sewage was diverted to one of the harbor islands for treatment.

 

[Cruisin Loser]

In Rhode Island bacterial contamination is correlated to rainfall, and most beach closures happen after heavy rains. The number of sewer discharges has been lowered, but there's a remaining attribution to feces: bird, pet, horses, livestock, being washed into the bay in heavy rainfall. Where the water is shallowest it's most measurable.

With pleasure boats we all play our parts since the clean water act and pumpout stations.

Boston Harbor was a cesspool in the 80s before the sewage was diverted to one of the harbor islands for treatment.

Imagine how disgusting BI and Cuttyhunk would be without holding tanks. 

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Because nothing washes off the land? Fertilizers and weed killer pax put in their yards, potted plants. Runoff from roads and driveways. Agricultural runoff. Unplanned sewage releases. But of course, it’s the boats. Yeah.

 

[Kris Cringle]

Because nothing washes off the land? Fertilizers and weed killer pax put in their yards, potted plants. Runoff from roads and driveways. Agricultural runoff. Unplanned sewage releases. But of course, it’s the boats. Yeah.

That explains the 47% of the times the beach has had a high bacteria reading after a rain event. 

How do you account for the 53% of the times the beach had a high bacteria count, during a no-rain period? 

Of course, it's not the boats.  

 

[Max Rockatansky]

That explains the 47% of the times the beach has had a high bacteria reading after a rain event. 

How do you account for the 53% of the times the beach had a high bacteria count, during a no-rain period? 

Of course, it's not the boats.  

So many variables, but the first that comes to mind is the lag time between the nutrient loading and the bacterial bloom...

 

[Kris Cringle]

So many variables, but the first that comes to mind is the lag time between the nutrient loading and the bacterial bloom...

According to the data, that would have to take place between the twice daily tidal cleansing that replaces over 40% of the harbor water. 

I'm with you that boaters are not the main issue. But the idea that 400 boats, with holding tanks, never pump out in a harbor, doesn't work for me. 

We have much stricter laws on littering roadsides, no inconvenience to disposing of litter properly, harsh fines that are enforced, and a much higher chance of getting caught than OBdischarge.

Yet every spring around here, we pick up the roadsides until all the trash is gone. 

Then we hit the roadsides and pick up new litter, the next spring. 

My only beef is the idea that boaters are not at all responsible for adding bacteria to the harbor. We'd be better served trying to improve that situation than denying we add to it. 

 

[Ajax]

Let's do BOTH. Let's manage our own waste stream AND hold bulk discharges to account. E

I'm sorry, but that's not how Maryland works.

 

[kent_island_sailor]

I'm sorry, but that's not how Maryland works.

https://www.wypr.org/show/maryland-morning/2016-01-11/zeroing-in-on-baltimores-sewage-crisis

Last month, the Environmental Integrity Project issued a report, commissioned by the Abell Foundation, that finds that hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage are being pumped into Jones Falls and the Inner Harbor, and that the city has consistently under-reported the volume of the raw waste that is released from its aging system of pipes

https://chestertownspy.org/2018/04/22/op-ed-where-are-cbf-and-cca-by-marc-castelli/

The Baltimore Sun reported on a 4.1-million gallons sewage spill into the Jones Falls on Monday the 16th of April.

That is 4.1 million gallons in ONE DAY

Think about that. Every single boat in the Chesapeake couldn't accomplish that if they tried. I did my part, how about you all (MD) do YOURS :angry:

* never mind the boat, how about the $24,000 fee for the sewer connection at my house!

 

[thinwater]

Jeez we're off topic, and heading in a useless, non-sailing direction. Rants are fun of course, and this is the place for them!

----

On another forum (I think) someone floated the idea of using a bidete with a composting toilet.

• No TP, which is helpful.
  
• Somehow get the bidete water into the pee diverter. I'm sure that is solvable. On a custom design, an elongated seat would do it.
  
• They were suggesting that the pee baffle would just drain overboard, without holding. Not sure the cops will agree, but let's skip past that for the moment. Again, I can think of a few work-arounds.
  

Such a system could be very user friendly in some environments. Discuss!