An evaluation of Waterless Human Waste Management Systems at North American public remote sites
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Geography, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Hill, Geoffrey Becker
issued: 2013-08-31T00:00:00
issued: 2013
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: The absence of sewers and roads at backcountry sites makes the management of human excreta offensive, intensive, and expensive. Proper management is essential in order to prevent deleterious pathogen and nutrient discharge. The dearth of resources, vague certification standards, absence of monitoring, and erroneous popular perception have caused misapplication of systems and mismanagement of end products. Elevated environmental impacts, human health risks, and management costs have resulted. The diversion of urine from urinals and by urine diversion seats significantly reduced the mass of helicopter extracted excrement. However, until a more robust urine diversion system is developed that does not clog, only urine from urinals should be diverted. Composting toilets failed to produce safe, stable, and mature end-product at all sites surveyed. They should be re-named sawdust toilets, following European nomenclature, to avoid further confusion. Performance was dramatically improved with urine diversion, elimination of bulking agent, and optimization for vermicomposting. Despite improving mineralization and reduction of volatile solids, operating costs, exposure risk, and E. coli, Eisenia fetida earthworms did not reduce Ascaris suum ova concentration or viability. Vermicomposting toilets, unlikely to produce residuals approved for unrestricted discharge, should be designed to minimize waste, costs, hazards, and environmental impacts. This approach is seemingly opposite from sawdust toilets, which at considerable cost, strive against unfavorable biochemistry and thermodynamics to produce ‘compost’ for onsite disposal despite precautionary federal regulations. Solvita® test paddles, useful in the assessment of end-product, could be used with vermicomposting toilets, to ensure low ammonia is present in feedstock (values 4-5) and to ensure stability (values 7-8) prior to disposal. Pit toilets, commonly excavated to depths greater than seasonal high ground water, carried th…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/43911
note: An Evaluation of Waterless Human Waste Management Systems at North American Public Remote Sites by GEOFFREY BECKER HILL B.Sc., The University of British Columbia, 2002 M.Sc., The University of British Columbia, 2006 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Geography) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) January 2013 © Geoffrey Becker Hill, 2013 ii Abstract The absence of sewers and roads at backcountry sites makes the management of human excreta offensive, intensive, and expensive. Proper management is essential in order to prevent deleterious pathogen and nutrient discharge. The dearth of resources, vague certification standards, absence of monitoring, and erroneous popular perception have caused misapplication of systems and mismanagement of end products. Elevated environmental impacts, human health risks, and management costs have resulted. The diversion of urine from urinals and by urine diversion seats significantly reduced the mass of helicopter extracted excrement. However, until a more robust urine diversion system is developed that does not clog, only urine from urinals should be diverted. Composting toilets failed to produce safe, stable, and mature end-product at all sites surveyed. They should be re-named sawdust toilets, following European nomenclature, to avoid further confusion. Performance was dramatically improved with urine diversion, elimination of bulking agent, and optimization for vermicomposting. Despite improving mineralization and reduction of volatile solids, operating costs, exposure risk, and E. coli, Eisenia fetida earthworms did not reduce Ascaris suum ova concentration or viability. Vermicomposting toilets, unlikely to produce residuals approved for unrestricted discharge, should be designed to minimize waste, costs, hazards, and environmental impacts. This approach is seemingly opposite from sawdust toilets, which at considerable …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2013-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0073570
language: eng
degree discipline: Geography
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43911