Sanitation in wilderness: balancing minimum tool policies and wilderness values.

Officials with the four wilderness managing agencies are faced with balancing wilderness preservation values and the minimum tool policies of their respective agencies. One example is the management of sanitation, particularly human waste and the often intrusive infrastructure that accompanies its treatment and disposal. Because the treatment and disposal of human waste is a potentially serious public health hazard if mismanaged, it some- times requires an elaborate infrastructure, including buildings and use of helicopters or pack stock. A paradox exists between public health concerns and the use of a minimum tool allowed by the agency to deal with human waste treatment and disposal. What is needed is a framework for balancing these interests to make explicit various options available to scientists and managers. This paper provides a matrix and related flow chart for considering various sanitation techniques while incorporating minimum tool options and concerns about related impacts. The issue of sanitation in wilderness presents a trouble- some paradox. On one hand, managers and scientists with the four wilderness-managing agencies must provide for the preservation of wilderness character while protecting the resource from impacts, including surface and ground water pollution caused by improper human waste disposal. The implementation of permanent structures to treat or store waste and the consistent use of helicopters or pack stock to transport waste or materials presents an interesting, albeit unusual perspective from which to examine the legal and ethical framework of wilderness. The Wilderness Act of 1964 (Public Law 88-577) includes the characterizing phrases "untrammeled by man," "retain- ing its primeval character" and "man's work substantially unnoticeable," yet it also explicitly states that the areas are to be managed with "no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment…no other form of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation…except as necessary to meet mini- mum requirements for the administration of the area." The notion of "minimum requirements" in wilderness areas mandated to be managed for "the preservation of their wilderness character" presents some ambiguity. The choice