The Hardin County, Ohio Amish settlement has experienced rapid growth over the past decade. There has long been an Amish presence there, but only in recent years has it really expanded as other areas in Ohio have become more crowded. Hardin County, about an hour north of Dayton and Columbus, has a rural composition and relatively inexpensive land. The issue that has made news there over the past week or so is the county's sudden desire to enforce waste disposal and well installation rules on the books. At a packed hearing on Tuesday night, the county decided to move ahead with enforcing the rules and condemn homes that don't conform. My two cents: it does seem like the county is bending over backwards to be fair by not grandfathering in homes with existing well issues and offering other options. As long as the county isn't targeting the Amish and is also going after other non-Amish people who might live in rural areas (I've not seen this addressed) with the same issues, then none of this seems like tyranny to me. Although I will say that it's hard not to agree with one of the comment posters in a Columbus Dispatch article on this topic who states "fracking? Sure go ahead, but an outhouse? Nope, no way." There does seem to be a bit of a proportionality issue here in a state that has embraced the environmentally destructive practices of fracking to make war on outhouses......just a thought. Click here to read more.
Missy
The thing is they're not being made to install septic systems per se, only to install a concrete pit liner under their existing outhouses. Why can't they do that? I would think it would make cleaning them easier.