[pnh102]

Wow! This time it really is the Amish!

[lexington minuteman 1775]

A possible solution would be some local sewage company could pump out the outhouses...so the Amish don’t break their religious beliefs?
Otherwise this goes from the crapper to the slammer for Yoder...

[cripplecreek]

Cambria County Sewage Enforcement Agency

I'm guessing this "agency" came into being about the same time people were likely forced to accept a community sewage system.

Every time I read something like this I thank God that my neighbors have been wise enough to vote against sewer, gas, and water lines.

[The Electrician]

Controversy over a manmade outhouse...

(scratching his head) What other kind is there?

[blu]

How long have the Amish and the outhouses been there? How long have the complainers been there? I’d bet the Amish have been there longer, and so have “sqatter’s” rights!

[gridlock]

People have been doing this for milleia. There are common sense methods to prevent groundwater contamination. This lawsuit just reflects the squimishness of people who are not used to dealing with reality.

Dumping spoils from an outhouse on the ground does not necessarily lead to groundwater or surface water contamination, if it is done properly. Presumably the Amish know what they are doing.

[2banana]

Crazy Amish at it again - what next?

[JimRed]

Neighbors of the Cambria County Amish community complained about the bathroom facilities the Amish are using because they take waste from their outhouse and dump it onto their property.

Do the nearby homes have public sewers? More likely septic systems. Darn little difference in the net effect on the water supply (little to none). Properly dried and plowed in, the manure should be no more offensive than any other fertilizer.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Barr Township will do well to avoid a fight with the Amish, who have the financial and political clout to spank its bureaucrats. If the Amish can STOP and major road construction project, then they can overturn a law against outhouses.

[chrisser]

We have Amish here in Ohio as well in several counties not too far from Cleveland. Nice people. Bit quirky, but once upon a time in this country, you had the right to be quirky and still be left alone.

Amish don't use electricity or mechanical power - just horses and other animals. My guess is that the average Amish farm generates several times more animal waste than human, and there certainly isn't any sort of sewage system for that.

Now that said, since septic systems (at least the anaerobic ones) don't require any mechanics, it would seem that the Amish could be convinced to put in slightly more effective systems for human waste treatment without compromising their beliefs. People who work the land tend to have more respect for it. I suspect there is some justification in wanting to keep human waste out of the runoff water, but those who are advocating it likely chose the blunt instrument of government coersion over the more effective and efficient instruments of education and cooperation.

Septic systems aren't all that complicated or difficult to install and most of the expense seems to be in the excavation - something that the Amish likely could do cheaply with their community traditions (think barn-raising). I'd bet there's a viable solution that every reasonable person in the county could live with that doesn't involve fining people for doing what they've been doing for generations.

[WayneM]

"We certainly respect them for their religious beliefs, but as Pennsylvania residents, they are required to follow state law," Sedlmeyer said.

If only they were illegal aliens, they would be allowed to ignore all sorts of laws - laws pertaining to registration and immunization of school children, workplace regulations, taxation rules, motor vehicle, driver license and insurance laws, etc.

Maybe they should voluntarily give up their citizenship and see if they could qualifiy for some of the special privileges given to illegals.

[colorado tanker]

Oh s@#t.

[DannyTN]

What exactly is against their religious belief? Dumping their sewage on other people’s property? Or are they being told to install an electric toilet?

This doesn’t sound like a representative Amish person to me.

[BillT]

Were the Amish there first?

[stompk]

thinking of a hot topic on here recently,
maybe the Amish could “go” in plastic bags and sent them to the dump. then there would be an outcry about plastic bags, and then they would be required to use an outhouse.

:-)

[lmailbvmbipfwedu]

A guy I worked with some years ago bought a small farm. After a about a month he stopped showing up for work. When I saw him I ask why. As it turns out the farm he bought needed a new well drilled. The site of the new well just happened to be the site of an outhouse that had been removed and been covered over. The new well was drilled through the pit. He and his whole family came close to dying from the pollution.

[Wuli]

the regular towns people must have some really shallow wells

the normal biologic activity of human waste placed in shallow ground should destroy, disperse, deplete any human-originating pathogens left in the liquid-form-of the waste before that liquid reaches the water level of most domestic wells

most all public water facilities and the best domestic-well water filter systems should eliminate the pathogens of most concern anyway

[Twink]

Every time I read something about the Amish (and I grew up in PA) or any other sect that lives free in this country but refuses for fight for those freedoms, just makes me shake my head. And the Amish are a wonderful group of people but I have a hard time getting past the fact they won’t fight for the freedoms they enjoy yet benefit from those freedoms.

[N. Theknow]

Those folks better watch out.

Clop, Clop, Clop, Clop, Clop

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Clop, Clop, Clop, Clop, Clop

It's an Amish drive-by shooting!