Whether or not this is the worst drought for the state in the history of the modern world, some people think so:
""With California facing one of the most severe droughts on record, Governor Brown declared a drought State of Emergency
in January and directed state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for water shortages. The state has
continued to lead the way to make sure California is able to cope with an unprecedented drought."" --
http://ca.gov/drought/ Topically, last year I built a composting toilet for use, and I am using it, using inexpensive building materials from Home Depot (ref: "The Humanure Handbook",
http://humanurehandbook.com/ ). [I'm not posting pics.] So far the DIYbio group has not had any DIY postings related to toilets (maybe I mentioned a couple topics years ago, and in the FAQ). Yet there is real funding out there for solutions, especially 3rd world solutions to combat disease and water contamination, such as The Gates Foundation, etc. Tangentially this past week I ran across a story in the financial news related to precious metal recovery from solid human wastes (ref: "Gold in faeces 'worth millions'" -- BBC news), targeting gold, silver, and "rare earth metals such as palladium and vanadium." Validity of this depends on the current price of metals of course.
Toilets waste a lot of water. And frankly the composting toilet is a better feature-wise solution [note: there's a built-in fan, there is no smell] compared to today's current water-driven-ceramic-bowl. Certainly composting is a better solution than using the water-filled-ceramic-bowl then not flushing at all. I haven't yet designed a bidet mechanism although I keep thinking of ways to solve that too, and would be a very neat addition.
Note: The compost is not to be used on a garden bed containing edible materials - unless certainty that the composting process has really completed. Though it's fine for flowers, etc. This is covered in the book referenced above.
Personally I consider this also DIYbio and an important environmental topic. Though perhaps sewage is not a typical topic of conversation - other than fecal transplants, which everyone else seems to love talking about, for reasons unknown, mums the word.
## Jonathan Cline
##
jcl...@ieee.org## Mobile:
+1-805-617-0223########################