R6 Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Waterless Composting Toilet Options for Rural Mendocino County
(Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)
Vote Requirement: Majority
As a new resident of the county seeking permanent, code compliant housing, I support a pilot for waterless, composting toilets. After learning about the history, world-wide safe usage of, and other local pilot programs such as in Santa Cruz, I am a complete supporter of composting toilets/container based sanitation. This is an opportunity for the county to utilize innovative solutions to create more affordable housing solutions in the difficult terrain of Mendocino County while also being more ecological by conserving our limited, much needed drinking water.
Thank you for considering Mendocino County as the next pilot for composting toilets, and helping lead the path for the future of sanitation needs throughout California.
I am grateful that the entire board is taking a look at this important matter. I am hopeful that every Supervisor will understand and approve a study of waterless sanitation as a needed alternative to Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems OWTS (AKA septic systems). The coastal lands especially have urgent problems now with its variable water table levels. Sea Level Rise pressures the saline water under and raises the fresh water higher. Same with King Tides, atmospheric rivers, and even the water flowing into and out of the conventional septic systems all adding to septic failure and raw sewage moving into the above ground surface. Many wells in our area are shallow and this is another reason to consider dry sanitation systems.
Disasters happen and we need to be ready to be resilient and control the spread of disease by learning how to manage toileting when power, water and shelter are down. Meadow Farm has offered our farm as a place for volunteers, visitors and neighbors during emergencies that cause a need for first aid, ham radio communication, solar power, sanitation and water. We teach how to use Container Based Sanitation CBS n our Plan B for Number 2 Workshops held three times since May 2025, Earth Day Booths and Emergency preparedness workshops partnering with LISTOS of California. Compostable, dry toilets can be managed with good health and safety.
Properly set up and managed I find them much easier to use and ecologically friendlier than flush toilet or especially portapotties!
As we encounter the potential for, earthquakes, Super El Nino storms, Sea Level Rise and migration of climate change refugees to coastal areas this may be seen in the light of urgent need. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here either. We know waterless sanitation has been studied and developed in Europe and other countries.
There are several things that the County and Board of Supervisors are directing their attention to studying. Waterless Composting Toilets are one of those things and are a direction we should be considering. The cost of installing and permitting a conventional system is becoming prohibitive for some potential residences and businesses. If this concept works in those cases we win by providing more housing and being innovative and ecological in our reduced use of clean water to flush toilets.
I am a District 4 resident of Mendocino County (just two miles east of Fort Bragg). I am a Boardmember and resident of Meadow Farm Community Land Trust who in 2024, was displaced from living in a yurt on the Farm by code enforcement. I urge unanimous support of Item R6 for five key reasons: 1) water conservation; 2) affordability given high costs of water based on-site wastewater treatment (septic) systems; 3) carbon sequestration (keeping septic trucks from running solid septic waste over the hill to Willits or Ukiah and back); 4) soil enrichment (returning safe nutrients in solid waste back into soil where important microbes and minerals can benefit soil health), and 5) ease and speed of implementation (dry sanitation systems can be implemented in a fraction of the time and a fraction of cost of water-based septic systems).
Please study the matter, seek funding sources, and hire consultants to further pilot projects to bring this important solution to many property owners whose water based systems are failing due to environment reasons or are too cost prohibitive to repair or construct.
Meadow Farm Community Land Trust advocates for affordable housing. Its vision, mission, and aims align perfectly to a waterless sanitation model. MFCLT would be a perfect location to consider a pilot project for County study. The Land Trust owns a one bedroom ADU with an approved permit to construct and install a $15,000 - $20,000 septic solution in order to house a needed farm worker family. The Land Trust also possesses a moveable tiny home on wheels that faces even a more expensive septic design involving a new leach field with estimates of $30,000-$40,000 to construct. Both of these structures are stymied by regulatory and financial barriers tied to water based sanitation. Let us be your partner in testing the safety and integrity of waterless sanitation.
ADU's and Moveable Tiny Homes are intended to be affordable!!! Put sanity back into sanitation!!!
Thank you for bringing this item up for discussion.
John Risk
In May Meadow Farm Community Land Trust sponsored and organized workshops with experts from Santa Cruz, Germany, and Ohio in the field of eco-friendly ways to manage human waste. I participated in these workshops and fully support Supervisor Williams and the county’s exploration of the voluntary container-based sanitation pilot.
Some septic systems in our coastal communities are failing and are vulnerable to seasonal variations in weather, high water tables, and flooding; this option would be helpful in further expanding functional housing availability in our coastal communities especially, allowing residents a healthy sanitation option when older septic systems start to falter.
For 20 years I lived rurally in New Mexico and had both a compost toilet and a septic system. The technology is viable, sanitary, productive, and saves water and the high cost of repairing septic systems.
Thank you for your service to our county and for considering this presentation on waterless composting toilet options.
As a new resident of the county seeking permanent, code compliant housing, I support a pilot for waterless, composting toilets. After learning about the history, world-wide safe usage of, and other local pilot programs such as in Santa Cruz, I am a complete supporter of composting toilets/container based sanitation. This is an opportunity for the county to utilize innovative solutions to create more affordable housing solutions in the difficult terrain of Mendocino County while also being more ecological by conserving our limited, much needed drinking water.
Thank you for considering Mendocino County as the next pilot for composting toilets, and helping lead the path for the future of sanitation needs throughout California.
I am grateful that the entire board is taking a look at this important matter. I am hopeful that every Supervisor will understand and approve a study of waterless sanitation as a needed alternative to Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems OWTS (AKA septic systems). The coastal lands especially have urgent problems now with its variable water table levels. Sea Level Rise pressures the saline water under and raises the fresh water higher. Same with King Tides, atmospheric rivers, and even the water flowing into and out of the conventional septic systems all adding to septic failure and raw sewage moving into the above ground surface. Many wells in our area are shallow and this is another reason to consider dry sanitation systems.
Disasters happen and we need to be ready to be resilient and control the spread of disease by learning how to manage toileting when power, water and shelter are down. Meadow Farm has offered our farm as a place for volunteers, visitors and neighbors during emergencies that cause a need for first aid, ham radio communication, solar power, sanitation and water. We teach how to use Container Based Sanitation CBS n our Plan B for Number 2 Workshops held three times since May 2025, Earth Day Booths and Emergency preparedness workshops partnering with LISTOS of California. Compostable, dry toilets can be managed with good health and safety.
Properly set up and managed I find them much easier to use and ecologically friendlier than flush toilet or especially portapotties!
As we encounter the potential for, earthquakes, Super El Nino storms, Sea Level Rise and migration of climate change refugees to coastal areas this may be seen in the light of urgent need. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here either. We know waterless sanitation has been studied and developed in Europe and other countries.
There are several things that the County and Board of Supervisors are directing their attention to studying. Waterless Composting Toilets are one of those things and are a direction we should be considering. The cost of installing and permitting a conventional system is becoming prohibitive for some potential residences and businesses. If this concept works in those cases we win by providing more housing and being innovative and ecological in our reduced use of clean water to flush toilets.
I am a District 4 resident of Mendocino County (just two miles east of Fort Bragg). I am a Boardmember and resident of Meadow Farm Community Land Trust who in 2024, was displaced from living in a yurt on the Farm by code enforcement. I urge unanimous support of Item R6 for five key reasons: 1) water conservation; 2) affordability given high costs of water based on-site wastewater treatment (septic) systems; 3) carbon sequestration (keeping septic trucks from running solid septic waste over the hill to Willits or Ukiah and back); 4) soil enrichment (returning safe nutrients in solid waste back into soil where important microbes and minerals can benefit soil health), and 5) ease and speed of implementation (dry sanitation systems can be implemented in a fraction of the time and a fraction of cost of water-based septic systems).
Please study the matter, seek funding sources, and hire consultants to further pilot projects to bring this important solution to many property owners whose water based systems are failing due to environment reasons or are too cost prohibitive to repair or construct.
Meadow Farm Community Land Trust advocates for affordable housing. Its vision, mission, and aims align perfectly to a waterless sanitation model. MFCLT would be a perfect location to consider a pilot project for County study. The Land Trust owns a one bedroom ADU with an approved permit to construct and install a $15,000 - $20,000 septic solution in order to house a needed farm worker family. The Land Trust also possesses a moveable tiny home on wheels that faces even a more expensive septic design involving a new leach field with estimates of $30,000-$40,000 to construct. Both of these structures are stymied by regulatory and financial barriers tied to water based sanitation. Let us be your partner in testing the safety and integrity of waterless sanitation.
ADU's and Moveable Tiny Homes are intended to be affordable!!! Put sanity back into sanitation!!!
Thank you for bringing this item up for discussion.
John Risk
In May Meadow Farm Community Land Trust sponsored and organized workshops with experts from Santa Cruz, Germany, and Ohio in the field of eco-friendly ways to manage human waste. I participated in these workshops and fully support Supervisor Williams and the county’s exploration of the voluntary container-based sanitation pilot.
Some septic systems in our coastal communities are failing and are vulnerable to seasonal variations in weather, high water tables, and flooding; this option would be helpful in further expanding functional housing availability in our coastal communities especially, allowing residents a healthy sanitation option when older septic systems start to falter.
For 20 years I lived rurally in New Mexico and had both a compost toilet and a septic system. The technology is viable, sanitary, productive, and saves water and the high cost of repairing septic systems.
Thank you for your service to our county and for considering this presentation on waterless composting toilet options.
I think this is something that should be considered.