Septic, and where composting toilets are actually legal

Sanitation

Perc first, always. Soil that fails turns a cheap parcel into an expensive one.

Perc first, always

Soil that fails a perc test turns a cheap parcel into an expensive one. A mound or engineered system can cost several times a conventional drainfield, and that cost lands before you have a wall standing.

The USDA Web Soil Survey gives you the dominant soil series and its septic rating for free, from your desk, before you spend anything on a real test. It is not a substitute for the test. It is how you decide whether the test is worth paying for.

Reserve the replacement field area too, and keep it clear of buildings, roads, compacted livestock ground and deep-rooted trees. Every system eventually needs one.

Composting toilets

The method is sound. The legality is the catch.

The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins is the most rigorous treatment of thermophilic composting of human waste in print, including pathogen die-off and temperature data. It began as a master’s thesis. The author publishes it free, in full, legitimately.

We link it rather than mirroring it, because it is his copyright however freely he gives it away.

Very few US counties permit a composting toilet as the primary sanitation for a permitted dwelling. It is commonly fine for outbuildings, workshops, and during construction. Ask the health department before planning a house around it, not after.

Plates from USDA Farmers' Bulletin 463, The Sanitary Privy. A work of the United States government, in the public domain. Hosted here so the link cannot rot. Click any plate to open it full size.

That bulletin is a century old and is here as construction history rather than as current guidance. The pit arrangements it describes would not pass a modern health inspection. The reason it still earns its place is that the ventilation, fly exclusion and siting logic are the same problems a composting installation has to solve today.

Sources