Some backcountry travelers in Canyonlands National Park will have to carry out their human waste as the National Park Service strives to better protect resources.
Beginning September 22, overnight backcountry permit holders for Chesler Park and Elephant Canyon backpacking campsites and the Peekaboo vehicle campsite in the park's Needles District will be required to pack out their human waste.
Additionally, the park will be removing vault toilets in two of the district's backcountry locations, Paul Bunyan's Potty and the Peekaboo vehicle campsite. These toilets are being removed due to the increasing difficulty of servicing the toilets, and in an effort to return the areas to their remote backcountry condition, the park said in a release.
Use of a toilet system that is either: 1) washable and reusable, allowing for the sanitary transfer of waste to sewage treatment facilities, or 2) of the type that treats solid waste with dry chemicals and is EPA-approved for disposal in landfills (a.k.a. "wag bags") will be required.
Disposing of untreated human waste in landfills is prohibited by the Environmental Protection Agency. Landfill-safe waste bags must be disposed of in a designated human waste receptacle, and portable toilet system contents must be emptied into a designated sewage treatment/dump station facility. Dumping portable toilet system contents and/or putting wag bags into vault or flush toilets are prohibited.
Human waste in the backcountry is becoming a greater resource protection and human health concern as park visitation increases. Park officials encourage all visitors coming to enjoy the region's backcountry trails and roads to plan ahead for ensuring they can properly contain and dispose of their human waste.
Comments
I can buy term limits. I don't see what throwing out the second amendment would accomplish. These men don't do it for money, they do it for power.
And with that power comes money. What might Jefferson, or Madison or the other founders think of calling corporations "people?"
I don't think the founders would have any problem applying the protections of the Constitution to corporations - which are nothing but collectives of people.
In my view the pork barreling that goes on is pandering for votes more than more money. If I bring home the bacon to my constituents, they will vote for me. Perhaps it will bring money to the campaign as well, but votes are what win elections not money - except to the extent money is given away in the form of entitlements. It is hard to run against "free".
Term limits would certainly help. Perhaps a repeal of the 17th amendment would be in order as well. But in my mind, the only real remedy is education. The public must learn that the money is not unlimited. That what "should" be isn't always what can or will be. We would all like to live in the Garden of Eden. But the bite has already been taken. Human nature and economics aren't going to let that happen.
Three ways "education" could get accomplished. 1) Change the education system, 2) change the liberal bent of the media, 3) A catastrophic event. Unfortunately, I believe the first two are unlikely to happen.
ec--As you no doubt know, there are many attempts now to change the education system. Too many, I am afraid, over rely on standardized testing to evaluate progress and teacher performance. I just read an article in the Albuquerque Journal where a charter school was trying to reverse that trend. They are stressing project development in small groups following a classroon unit on a subject. The idea is to stress those skills needed in a real life job--active listening, working together, the more ideas brought to the table the better the project, making use of the group's best resources, giving everyone a chance to express his/her opinion, choosing the best leaders for that task, etc. This seems to me to be a better way to measure what a student will be able to do upon leaving school and a much better way to measure the ability of a teacher to promote real education rather than rote memorization. I will be anxious to hear how this works. As to the rest of the state, it is soldiering on with the adoption of the core curriculum and increased testing. Sigh, pretty soon there won't be any time remaining for learning.
Rick
Rick,Until the school systems get out from under the grasp of the teacher's unions there will be no real change. School vouchers and local control (not common core) and getting the Feds out of the educations business (where they have no Constitutional right to participate) are the mechancial answers. Focusing the curriculum on core education - history, economics, english, science and getting the schools out of sex education, diversity training and other progressive agendas is the only way to improve the actual educational experience. I am pessimistic this will happen.
Three ways "education" could get accomplished. 1) Find a way to get American families to actually value education and make sure their children live in an atmosphere in which knowledge is treasured and efforts of teachers are fully supported, 2) return our news media to local ownership and control by eliminating the growing monopolies of huge news corporations that are able to exert far too much power over what is published, 3) A catastrophic event -- might help, but most Americans probably wouldn't even notice unless their TV and other entertainment was cut off.
OK, going from packing out poop to the Founding Fathers' intent and educational agendas is quite a leap. So, unless you have anything germane to the post, let's move on....
Agree with #1. Can't agree with #2. Monopolies? The only monopoly is on the thought process not in the ownership. #3. they will notice when their freebees are cut off.
{edit}
Sorry Kurt, you post came in while I was writing mine.