|
|
|
Servicing 75,000 Visitors a
Year at Hawk Mountain
by Dan Simon
The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary relies on compost toilets not only for
its remote North Lookout observation point, but also for its main
visitor center, nearby amphitheatre and trail head restroom locations
— areas that could easily be serviced by conventional plumbing
systems.
In fact, at least in its visitor center, water service is ready available
for washing hands or making coffee, so why not conventional plumbing?
The ladies compost toilet facility at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's
North Lookout. ©GreenWorks photo by Dan Simon
|
"It's good to find alternative ways to deal with our waste,"
said Todd Bauman, the sanctuary's facilities manager, " but even
more importantly from a remote site like we have we also rely on our
water source from a well we don't have a reservoir in our backyard
or anything like that.
"We get 75,000 visitors a year. and if you went with something
more standard, that would be an incredible amount of water use. By
using compost toilet technology along with privy technology, it lets
us reduce our water use down to about 400 gallons a week during our
busy season. During this time we're averaging two thirds of our visitation
a yea. From a water conservation standpoint it's an excellent system
to utilize."
The compost toilets smell a lot better than pit toilets too. Because
fans draw air into the commode, the strong odor commonly associated
with wilderness toilets, isn't present with a compost toilet, so long
as it's properly maintained.
The sanctuary still hires a waste management company to remove composted
human waste from the facility, simply because it has no appropriate
way to use the material. Hawk Mountain's main benefits from using
the compost toilets are improved service for its guests and the elimination
of a potentially water intensive waste disposal system.
"Currently that's a whole little twist with composting technology
currently in the state of Pennsylvania," Bauman said. "Actually
we are not allowed by the state to use it to fertilize your flower
beds.
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary uses compost toilets in its main
visitor center because the technology dramatically reduces
its water use. ©GreenWorks photo by Dan Simon
|
"I'd say we probably remove 800 to a thousand gallons a year.
It's a mixture, when I say compost, we have a number of composting
toilets and we also have a number of what I'd call privies or bulk
toilets. Again, they're not that terribly far apart as far as their
use, so when I say 800 to a thousand gallons a year, it's actually
a combination of the two."
The compost toilets do offer certain advantages to the sanctuary that
the old-fashioned privy models don't.
"The compost toilet, there's companies that just manufacture
units," Bauman explained. "You can just purchase their units
in a fiberglass model, so it's a little bit easier for that site (The
sanctuary's North Lookout is a steep, rocky, one-mile uphill hike).
The other thing with the compost toilets is there's a little less
odor to them as well, and you can get a lot more use of them because
the product does break down and reduce itself over time. Now that
doesn't mean at some point you don't have to empty the chambers but
you don't have to empty them as often as a privy toilet.
"It's good to find alternative ways to deal with our waste but
even more importantly from a remote site like we have we also rely
on our water source from a well we don't have a reservoir in our backyard
or anything like that."
|
| |
|
