[FLPERMACULTURE] composting toilet cont.

[Krisna Goodbody]

Wow, thanks for responding Micheal.  No one did at the time.

I have since built the system, which is the three bin method advocated by 
Jenkins ,13 ft. long 6 ft. wide,  and decided that Jenkins"s opinion about 
ground water contamination was valid; that the pile won"t leech into the 
ground water, because the pile needs water added to it, and unless there"s a 
heavy rainstorm. I"m not worried as I've had to water it regularly, and 
there"s a good 18 in. dry grass barrier between the pile and ground. I get 
the water from another rainwater collection site that's on the property.

I've dug into the ground for extra room.  It's the idea of the woman whose 
property it is. She does her regular compost piles like this.  I tend to 
agree with you; it doesn"t seem like a good idea to me, but it"s already 
done.  I ended up putting it 15 in. into the ground, which gives me an extra 
30 or so cubic feet of space, on one side.  So we"ll see about the heating 
of the bottom of the pile.  I"m going to keep my fingers crossed, but so far 
so good.

I"ve emptied the three composting toilets on the property that were full, 
and have filled the first bin up to about four feet,  but it"s shrinking 
fast, and steaming nicely.  I only hope that doing so much at a time isn"t 
going to smother the bottom layers, and on top of what you"ve said about the 
ground cooling the pile down...we"ll see.

Does anyone know about doing a large quantity of humanure compost all at 
once in a pile like the one Jenkins describes in the Humanure Handbook?

Does anyone know a good source for a composting thermometer.  I found some 
sources online, but the 36 in. models, which is the length I need to reach 
the middle of the pile, are all running between $60 and $80, which seems a 
little steep to me, but I may just be naive about these things.

Thanks again,

Christopher

>From: "Micheal Wheeler" <mmw5 at cornell.edu>
>Reply-To: fingerlakespermaculture at lists.mutualaid.org
>To: fingerlakespermaculture at lists.mutualaid.org
>Subject: Re: [FLPERMACULTURE] composting toilet cont.
>Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:28:26 -0400
>
>I don't seem to find any replies posted to this.  Did anyone get back to 
>you?
>
>One thing I imagine for my system when I finally get around to it is
>doing the composting inside a greenhouse.  Any sort of a cover will
>reduce the amount of water getting in and therefore leaching out.  And
>the roof can collect water for washing buckets, controlled watering
>the pile, breeding mosquitos, etc.
>
>Why do you want to dig into the ground at all?  That doesn't make
>sense to me-- it cools the pile down (at least the portion of the pile
>in contact with the soil) and prevents composting. I know when we've
>tried digging pits for hot beds they never heated up and just ended up
>a smelly mess, but when we built them above ground with haybales for
>sides they worked beautifully.
>
>As for ground water contamination, I strongly suggest doing soil
>percolation tests.  If the soil is too sandy to treat effluent from a
>septic system, then I believe it is too sandy to treat effluent from
>this kind of compost pile.  At least, better safe than sorry.
>
>Mike Wheeler
>
>On 6/15/06, Krisna Goodbody <nonremissedic2 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>Just want to add, for clarification, that the toilet is a "bucket carry
>>system", and the "site" the location of the dumped buckets.
>>
>>Thanks again.
>>
>> >From: "Krisna Goodbody" <nonremissedic2 at hotmail.com>
>> >Reply-To: fingerlakespermaculture at lists.mutualaid.org
>> >To: fingerlakespermaculture at lists.mutualaid.org
>> >Subject: [FLPERMACULTURE] composting toilet
>> >Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:45:43 -0400
>> >
>> >Hey everybody,
>> >
>> >I am building a composting toilet system on a site with a well fed by an
>> >underground stream, so I don't want to risk contaminating the water 
>>supply.
>> >  The exact location of this stream is unknown, so caution is required.
>> >I've dug the site into the ground about a foot, and have had the idea to
>> >line the bottom with recycled plastic sheeting, like plywood but 
>>plastic.
>> >However, this would create a barrier for the earthworms and other
>> >beneficial instects to enter the pile and assist in the composting 
>>process.
>> >
>> >So, I would like to ask if anyone knows how deeply a large pile will 
>>seep
>> >into the ground in VERY sandy soil.  I know that normally the bio 
>>barrier
>> >is 18" of straw, but the owner wants to make sure that NOTHING 
>>contaminates
>> >the water, and rightly so.  The site is 6 ft. x 14 ft. divided into 
>>three
>> >areas and a little over a foot into the ground.  Maybe it shouldn't be 
>>dug
>> >into the ground at all. I do feel, though, that it won't be a problem, I
>> >just want to reaffirm my feeling with some other knowledgable folks.
>> >
>> >Any comments, suggestions, websites or the like would be well 
>>appreciated.
>> >I have read the humanure handbook, so I know what he says about the
>> >contamination pattern for an outhouse, pit-style toilet, but refresh my
>> >memory if 10 ft. down by 30 ft. in the direction of water runoff isn't
>> >correct.
>> >
>> >Thanks everybody,
>> >
>> >Christopher
>> >
>>
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