Tiki Gardens

[nanasohana]

Really? We lived there for 5 years and its no better or worse than most anywhere else in lower Puna. In fact, we had no problems. Geeze.
We built fully permited. Be part of the solution, not the problem.

[leilanidude]

quote:

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Originally posted by fishenjim

..I dont plan on having permit for anything..

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Please don't move here if you are simply planning on adding to the issues we are already have.

[lavalava]

quote:

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Originally posted by leilanidude

quote:

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Originally posted by fishenjim

..I dont plan on having permit for anything..

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Please don't move here if you are simply planning on adding to the issues we are already have.

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Hey it's Hawaii right? The rules don't apply here in paradise right?

[Punaperson]

quotes:
Originally posted by fishenjim: ..I dont plan on having permit for anything..

leilanidude : Please don't move here if you are simply planning on adding to the issues we are already have.

Thank you for writing what many of us are thinking.

[BI-Curious]

Ericip,
What is "the house of cards"? I'm curious!

[fishenjim]

OK I dont plan on getting permits.Am I mistaken I dont see unpermitted houses for sale.What does this mean.I dont intend on having a shack.I dont intend to be unsafe.I am not unclean.You could do alot worse than me for neighbor.I have seen a fully and fineally inspested house burn to the ground 2 weeks old,bad wireing job in attic fan.I see right here on puna web catchment tank 1 inch to close to structure....FAIL.move tank,scrap tank,wasted labor time money.I see here as well permits pulled,2 years pass, nothing done still living in shack..no prob.There are many ways to build to wire and to plumb that are safe, efficient,and not going to meet code.If I have a custom P.V.system built and installed by a master electrician,not certified in H.I.why the need for inspetion.They wont come back and tell me whats wrong when it breaks.I cant imagine me adding to the issues you already have,not on welfare e.b.t,no ice head,no theif,tresspasser,scum bag,porch lurker,gad about,junk collector,rooster farmer, gmo lover,gmo hater,invasive species lover,U.F.O./Gov cover up nut,speeder,or general thug.no I wont contribute to those issues.I know there are more.what i am is a hard worker,honest, honerable,poor speller who loves to fish and might just want to sample some of that puna sticky icky.Hell I dont even drink.Your issues are safe with me.I dont create issues for others unless they insist on creating them for me.I may or may not be part of your solution if you assume its THE solution.I dont see how i could be part of THE problem.Greed and ignorance are the root of most real problems. and FEAR is the mother of violance.

[lavalava]

Well, that succinct summation of what the real problems are here in Puna is an instant PW classic. Thanks Jim and welcome aboard the good ship lollipop ;-)

[MarkP]

I use a bucket toilet here in my shipping container home and it is not "ewww" at all. It does not smell at all in between uses. When it is full, or sooner if you have any other issues with it, you take it out and empty it into a compost heap, covering it well with mulch, grass clippings, sawdust, or whatever you got. Right now I am using grass clippings or rather weed clippings I should say, which are a rough mixture of coarse dead grass stems, various woody weeds, and whatever saplings will succumb to my push lawn mower. I modified the lawn mower with pneumatic wheels of the kind that are on hand trucks, greatly raised the ground clearance, and cut away part of the front of the mower to better handle the weeds. Yep, I have a jacked up Puna style mower with monster 'truck tires.

So far nobody from the gummint has bothered me about my shipping container lifestyle. I do feel a bit guilty about bringing down the property value of my one neighbor who built a beautiful small house, but then I am definitely bringing UP property values when you consider my other neighbors. Really. Most people would be lucky to have me as a neighbor.

From everything I have read about permitting cesspools, greywater systems, composting toilets, etc, I have concluded that if push came to shove I would install whatever the county required, then keep doing my own thing.

A septic tank and leach field is a carefully designed system that seems to work pretty well. Part of the design is that the leach field should be only a couple of feet down from the surface. In areas with a high water table the leach field can be in a mound only 3' or so high above the surrounding ground surface. The key is spreading out the water, slowing it down and providing lots of surface area by burying it in gravel and sand, so that there is time and space for the aerobic bacteria that live in the top layers of the soil to do their magic.

Now think about what a cesspool is and tell me which is better for the environment, a turd in a nice hot absorbent compost heap on the surface with only rainwater added or a turd flushed with 5 gallons of water into what is essentially a 12' deep injection well a long way below the aerobic layers of the soil, with an additional 50 gallons of shower and laundry water dumped in on top of it, plus rainwater, to help speed it on its way to the water table. If THAT'S legal, why bother having any laws at all?

[Delta9r]

A real composting toilet uses some form of substrate, such as peat moss, along with a microbial amendment which helps to break down the waste materials in a healthy manner.
The above mentioned method is preferable to a plain cesspool which leaches untreated sewage directly into the substrate, even though the resultant percolation through the ground filters the sewage to some degree.

Just look at what's happening off the leeward shores of Maui & Hawai'i.
Algal bloom, reef die-off, etc...
All the big hotels discharge sewage, treated or not, into the ocean in front of the hotels, even if the sewage outfall is a long ways out. Also, the sewage effluent is being applied to the golf courses, which eventually runs off into the nearby ocean.

I would rather see a properly maintained composting toilet than the typical cesspool, because the cesspool, when multiplied by the numbers we see today, is adding too much waste to our fragile aquifer.

This ties into the toxic waste spills on Mauna Kea, which is the most sacred place in the entire Pacific ocean, as well as the highest point in the aquifer on this island.

No matter what you pollute our island with, this pollution reaches our basal lens aquifer, as well as our sea shores.

It's not rocket science.

"Life is labor, and all that is good in life comes from that labor..."

[Hunt Stoddard]

I agree with MarkP. I don't really see the insurmountable problem with dealing with a single person's "waste." Without revealing too much, I was once at a job site where I, shall we say, did not have access to an indoor toilet facility and had to make due. This job lasted a good two months. I picked a single spot to do my business. Now, unless someone actually happened on the site (crosses chest) nobody was ever the wiser. This was with me doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING by way of remediation. At other times I've covered waste with a small layer of dirt. Via this simple process, no odor AT ALL resulted. It seems to me that dealing with personal waste is exceedingly simple if only one takes the most remedial steps to deal with it.