Why Fecal Matter Matters: Mt. Whitney’s waste problem

Mt. Whitney. Elevation:14,496 feet. The highest point in the lower 48 states. A glorious sight to behold. What most people don’t think about is the enormous amount of human waste left on its slopes every year. 195 permits are available each day according to the Inyo National Forest Website, and almost all of them are used during the summer. With all of these hikers and climbers, quite a bit of them leave behind a bit of themselves.  In the year 2007 alone according to my bosses here over 6330 pounds of feces were packed out of the Whitney zone. If that were to be stacked in the poop barrels which they use to truck the waste to a facility, it would be taller than the Statue of Liberty.  This creates a lot of work for the Mt. Whitney rangers who will quite often fill up their packs with little bags of feces on the way back down.

So what’s the point? Does fecal matter in the wilderness really matter?

Well, pretend you are hiking in beautiful Sequoia National Park. It’s a glorious day and the sun is shining as you sit down beside a crystal clear stream.  You dip your cup in the inviting water, but upon putting the cup to your lips, you gaze down and with your superhuman microscope eyes and notice all of the fecal coliform bacteria swimming in your beverage.  Horribly disappointed, you realize that you must find a stream without such critters therein.  Unfortunately, most people don’t have this type of microscope vision, so many people get sick from this contaminated water.

So, in short, yes it does matter very much.  For the health of everyone including our furry, slimy and scaly friends in the natural world, and also to preserve the aesthetic appeal of our natural wonders.

What to do about this?  The forest service is desperately trying to deal with the issue. I may make light of it here, but with a burgeoning population visiting the wilderness every year, the Forest Service is trying to do everything in its power to mitigate the problem before all of our natural wonders become nothing more than giant latrines.  It’s gotten to the point where they’re having regional poop conferences.  My bosses here have been invited to speak about the Mt. Whitney problem at one of these assemblies this fall out in Colorado. It’s that big of a deal.

But, have no fear, for the wonderful folks at Cleanwaste have invented something called the WAG Bag! Not only does it come with a hands-free cardboard toilet-ette, but a powder contained within turns all liquids to a gel. And the plastic from which the bag is made was designed by NASA so you know it has to be good! Those spacemen have a lot of crap to put up with, and they know how to deal with it.

Do I need one? Nah! I think I can hold it…  

Tags: Conservation, feces, humor, Inyo National Forest, Mt. Whitney, outdoors, sanitation