The Oil Drum

the temperature high enough to kill the bad bugs.

Yes, BUT the 'bad bugs' ARE the food for fungi/worms/other things in a worm bin. Testing of 'bad bugs' from a vermipost system shows reduction to almost 0.

So it can be done.

I have heard that dog and cat 'poop' from animals fed commercial dog and cat food (virtually all) is high in heavy metal residues. Haven't corroborated this factoid anywhere. Heard it from a friend who ran a kennel and constructed a special septic tank to get rid of the dog poop.

Re: parasites - Parasites and bad bugs will end up in your compost only if they're already in your body to begin with. (You are eating right and keeping yourself healthy, arent you?) Mind you, I was only referring to human manure, chances are higher that cat or dog poo will have some issues with that, unless they're on some special diet and never go outside. Anyway, it's the manure that gets the pile hot enough to kill unwanted germs in the first place - the microbes that love to eat poo and love heat get very active and the friction between their little bodies creates more heat, at least as I understand.

Bob,

The septic laws are apparently meant for water quality protection but the fact remains that these regulatory laws do very little to actually stop water pollution (whether ground, surface or estuary). The moment one urinates and/or defecates in a water flush toilet you are making a very personal contribution to water pollution woes and all the septic regulatory laws on the books as is are not altering this tragic effect.

By not peeing & pooping in a water flush toilet but instead capturing and adding humanure to a well built and maintained compost pile one no longer pollutes ground water aquifers, or otherwise causing run-off pollution because a good compost pile is like a huge sponge -- it can absorb and hold a tremendous amount of water without any run-off (barring of course flood conditions).

I imagine that Galveston homes once provided for their own water with their own wells and cesspools for their septic waste, but one day discovered that their water wells were becoming tainted with their septic wastes leaching into their ground water aquifer and even the bay. The mop & bucket solution was then to provide for city wide water as well as sewer lines and sewage treatment facilities.

Bob, what do you think happens to this water after sewage treatment and the de-watered sludge? I think I know but for your own edification you might want to visit your own sewage treatment plant and ask some questions. Among them I would encourage you to enquire of the treatment process, how it works and what chemicals they use anywhere along the treatment process; also where does the treated water go afterwards (re-injected in the ground?) and where the de-watered sludge goes (this last one could carry you far afield of Galveston). What tests do they run on their treated water and can you see the results? The test results will fall within their regulatory limits but it is by no means pure water and the test results will show this.

Of your public water supply I imagine it is treated with chlorine. You do know that chlorine is a potent poison? But the regulatory laws meant to ensure your water quality require it. Such laws may be fit for regulatory purposes but IMHO adding poison to one's water supply does not enhance its water quality. If you want good water of pure and untainted quality now a daze that more often than not comes in plastic jugs one buys at the store (although I would not recommend anything that isn't from a spring or distilled -- forget about Desani.)

So, Bob, once you've really looked into this regulatory mop & bucket boondoggle of *water quality protection* and then care to truly "oppose any activity that adds to pollution in general", you too will soon be making compost in your backyard and adding your very own humanure to it. Perhaps then you'll understand the virtue of such a personal endeavor of responsibility and will know better to extoll it rather than foolishly rebuke it.

So you're saying that it's mainly untreated animal waste from people's pets running off into groundwater supplies that pollutes the water in your area... this seems to be an apples and oranges situtation then. On the one hand, we have untreated, unmanaged fecal coliform bacteria from dogs and wild birds contaminating the groundwater.. surely a problem, but one that doesn't really relate to carefully composted material. And on the other hand, we have maybe a handful of people, 0.00001% of the US population, dealing with their "leavings" in a way that, if done properly, dramatically reduces the presence of harmful bacteria present, improves soil quality, and provides a long-term alternative to energy-intensive, costly, and ultimately environmentally destructive sewage treatment systems. The four main sources of coliform in groundwater are:
1- leaky septic tanks or overflowing combined sewers,
2- pets,
3- birds, and
4- poor agricultural practices, such as letting livestock graze near bodies of water.

These all share one common feature: untreated, "naked" manure, if you will. This is a completely different set of circumstances than a carefully managed compost pile. The infinitesimally tiny chance of general pollution from manure recycling is far outweighed by the benefit of reducing participation in municipal treatment systems that are known to, for instance, dump 1.2 billion tons of chlorine into our streams, lakes, rivers and oceans each year, along with the 2.3 million tons of toilet paper produced by paper mills that are themselves sources of fecal coliform.

So, from a pollution standpoint, I'm not saying mine doesn't count. I'm just saying it counts for a helluva lot less than the alternative.