It’s nothing fancy. It’s a stool with a hole in it. You do your business, leave your deposit and move on. However, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says for some it’s not that simple. For some, they choose to leave a lot more.
And it’s a pain in the butt to clean out.
“Somebody’s got to do it. Might as well be me,” Diamond Lake Access Manager Daniel Dziekan humbly says as he and his colleague Adam Brant and Nicholas Wahl from Tri-County Septic work to clean out the 1000 gallon tank below the toilet at the Diamond Lake boat launch.
Dziekan carries a positive attitude and a sense of pride while sifting through sewage sludge for garbage carelessly and selfishly thrown down the hole by boaters and recreators over the course of the season.
“I like it,” he says before amending his statement. “I don’t like the smell and the stink, but I like the product we can provide to the public. I love the service I can provide and the opportunity for people to have.”
Please Do Not Put Trash in the Toilets. It is Extremely Difficult to Remove the sign says inside the restroom.
Outside at the boat launch are multiple signs asking folks using the facility to please “pack it in, pack it out.”
Yet, every year, sometimes twice a year, Dan and his crew find themselves having to pull garbage out of the tank of sewage before they are able to pump it out.
Nicholas Wahl has worked for Tri-County Septic for 9 years and as he’ll tell you, “You name it, I’ve seen it” when it comes to things he’s found in septic tanks.
Tri-County is one of the only septic companies that will work with Fish and Wildlife to empty the toilets because of all of the garbage people throw in them.
“A lot of people just want to deal with the easier jobs. Pump the tank and go to the next one,” Wahl says.
Dziekan says some companies will show up, see the job and want nothing to do with it.
The garbage has to be separated from the sewage because it will clog the pump hoses and more importantly, the wastewater treatment facility that treats the sewage won’t take it if it’s full of trash.
“Our job isn’t to pull garbage out of vault toilets or pick up after the public,” Dziekan noted. “Our job is to provide recreational opportunity for folks and it’s hard to do that when we spend so much time pick up after people.”
I stood off (well off) to the side while the crew did their work at Diamond Lake on Thursday. After pulling more than 600 pounds of garbage from the toilet at Deer Lake on Tuesday, Thursday’s haul seemed to be a massive one as well as they listed off all of the items they pulled out with their claw grips.
“Lots of cans… fishing bait, nightcrawlers… fishing lures… coffee cup… no idea what that is… Lunchables… It’s a chicken egg!”
Yeah, a chicken egg. Still intact. The crew reckoned they’d found nearly a dozen eggs in the toilet on Thursday. And while that’s odd, it doesn’t compare to some of the more unique items they’ve seen.
“Somebody threw a car battery down out at Silver Lake last year,” Dan said. “A lot of adult toys. You wouldn’t think you’d find something like that out here, but we do… It’s not very sanitary, but when the mood strikes.”
After nearly two hours of work for a job that should’ve taken a fraction of that, the end is in sight.
“Yeah, that’s the bottom,” Dan says.
A bottom that reveals one more surprise.
Often, a simple rock is used to prop the door of the restroom open. At the bottom of the tank is a pile of door stops of days gone by, including a pretty big one.
“Probably 30 pounds, we’re not pulling that one up,” Dan concedes.
Much like Deer Lake a couple of days before, Diamond Lake proved to be quite the haul, as well, with dozens of bags of trash weighing about 250 pounds total.
It’s time and money that everyone agrees could be better spent. Between the cost of disposing of the garbage, the added cost of time and labor for the septic company, a job that should have cost the agency $500 – $1000, often costs double or even triple that amount.
“If you compare what it costs to pump our a regular septic tank, you’re talking roughly $700 after tax, which is like 1000 gallons,” Wahl estimated. “These are 1000 gallon tanks and you’re paying several times more than that just with the labor.”
Dziekan, as someone who takes an immense amount of pride in his work, would rather spend that money making the areas better for those who use them.
“If I’m spending $10,000 a year on pumping, that’s $10,000 of improvements we could be doing to the property,” Dziekan says. “I wish I didn’t have to be doing this. I wish I could be blowing the parking lot of leaves, but we’ll get to that next week.”
Dziekan added that often times they have to ask for more funding for toilet cleaning and if there are no funds available, or the trash problem gets bad enough, there is a chance the restrooms could be closed.
“That’s a possibility,” Dziekan said. “If I can’t get a pumper to empty it, I have to lock it because I can’t let people keep filling it up.”
So what’s the solution? A dumpster at the sites? No.
Dziekan said in the past when dumpsters have been added to areas, those are also abused as people will just bring their garbage from home and they’ll get filled up and overflow, which creates additional problems.
The solution is actually pretty simple.
“It’s super easy: Pack it in, pack it out,” Wahl says. “It makes so many people’s lives more easier and it would reduce costs for so many things.”
“You brought it. Please bring it home,” Dziekan says. “If I can change the mind of one or two people, I’m happy. If we can stop a lot of people, that’s going to help us. It’ll free us up, it’ll take less time.”
As he has been the entire time he’s been cleaning out the tank, Dan has a smile on his face.
“Maybe someday we’ll get there,” he says before heading inside to spray the toilet down with Lysol.
So the next time you’re at a boat launch toilet, or heck, any public toilet for that matter, read the signs. Take them to heart. Be a kind human. Remember that there are folks on the other side having to clean up the carelessness of others and there’s no reason to add to their work.
