Dear Umbra,
When at a beach with no bathrooms, is it better, environmentally speaking, to urinate in the ocean or behind a sand dune?
Tom
Greenville, N.C.
Dearest Tom,
A good, silly summer question to consider as regards our impact on the natural environment. There are non-environmental concerns with beach urination as well, such as disgusting your fellow sunbathers and your fellow readers. Who, however, will cast the first wad of toilet paper and say she or he has not had this dilemma?
Come on in, the water's warm(er).
Photo: iStockphoto
The answer will vary a little depending on where you are and what restrictions are in place, but in general Leave No Trace is the outdoor ethic we should be striving for, whether we are in the wilderness or on Atlantic Beach. Leave No Trace principles concerning human waste include doing your best to avoid polluting water sources, minimizing social and wildlife contacts, and maximizing decomposition.
Happily, urine is not the problem that feces are. The main trouble with our practically sterile urine is its smell and saltiness, both of which can attract wildlife. The wildlife may then look around for something tasty near the smell, digging into soil, nibbling plants, and what have you until they are disappointed and depart. Hence, when urinating on land, it's best to target less sensitive sandy or rocky areas. Which sounds just like a dune -- but wait. Dunes are notoriously sensitive, and let's also keep in mind avoiding social contacts, i.e., being careful not to leave a stinky location for fellow beachgoers to encounter. Given all this, I think ocean water would be the preference. If the water is too cold or you are too wimpy, just make sure you go below the high-tide line (though still out of sight of your fellow beachgoers) -- then nature will flush your liquid waste away.
I realize you didn't ask about freshwater, Tom, but there are river, lake, and quarry-side beaches we must consider. In a river canyon setting, for instance, it's hard to get 200 feet away from water and trails, so I guess the common practice is to pee in the river. But in other wilderness-type situations, in which we can get 200 feet away from water and publicly used places, we should urinate on a rocky or sandy area, feeling confident that it is not the exact stinky place where everyone else is urinating, and that a curious critter won't do too much damage. (In an actual wilderness area, follow human waste instructions from the nearest ranger station.)
Now, I have something special for the ladies as regards public urination. We now have the go-ahead to pee in the water in a river-canyon-type situation. What of the wilderness-type situation and the problem with pulling down your pants to squat while guys get to pretend they are intensely studying shrubbery? It's awkward, and I am here to tell you about a few products that can help us urinate standing up and fully clothed. I have not used these products, but I know people who have and swear by them in situations from hiking to farming to portapottying -- I know you can think of an occasion when you would have preferred to remain standing and pretend you were studying the shrubbery. These are all funnel variants: The pStyle is plastic, 7.5 inches long, and comes in a variety of tasteful colors, the Shewee is for the British ladies -- these both fit into your pocket or purse and are reusable. There are disposable versions, such as the Whizzy, the Urinelle, and the P-Mate, but you know how we feel about disposable items. Try 'em if you think you'd like 'em -- and let me know how it goes.
Freely,
Umbra
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Comments View as Flat
Mark Powell Posted 5:13 am
25 Jun 2007
Please don't pee in the ocean
At least not in heavily used sites. While pee is natural, it's probably time to start worrying about pee where many thousands of people visit sensitve sites like coral reefs. This is especially true where reefs are already under stress. I hate to be the downer guy here, but maybe try to hold it in popular coral reef diving sites.
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shoreranger Posted 6:32 am
25 Jun 2007
Dunes sensitive not only to "pee"
Applying Leave No Trace (LNT) principles to peeing around dunes extends beyond the vegitation's sensitivity to urine and resulting animal concentration/activity. An issue inherent in this discussion is traversing through vegitation to get to a spot that is suitible to wee-wee. Not only is is a good idea to avoid pissing in the dunes because of what will be left behind, but also because of the likely damage to vegetattion to trampling while going to and from. As noted, dune vegetation is remarkably sensitive, particularly to getting stepped on. On the other hand, it is these plants that do much to keep the dunes from blowing away. Without those dunes our coastlines would be much more susceptile to storm damage - losing not only the beach itself into the ocean but what is behind it as well.
It doesn't take much for a "social trail" to form on a dune to an area convenient for urinating (two or three trips can be enough). A dune trail absent of vegetation can quickly "channel" coastal winds that will gouge out sections of a dune, quickly blowing sand away. This can expose roots of plants not even trampled, and kill them as well, leading to the destruction of a complete dune system. This can happen not in "geologic time" of hundreds or thousands of years, but as quickly as a matter of months.
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truroporch Posted 8:35 am
25 Jun 2007
Whizzy?
Whizzy? Urinelle? Okay, maybe if your beach is more crowded than mine. But here is where the hiking skirt and/or the bathing suit cover-up come in handy, easier than the dudes really. Just squat and go. And Umbra, you didn't address the toilet paper issue but there are plenty of natural alternatives - flat shells and rocks work nicely at the beach. Hope this doesn't get sensored 'cause I'm serious.
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J72Pete Posted 10:34 pm
25 Jun 2007
Does a bear
Does a bear go in the woods? Do people on camping trips? Back in college we hiked 'leave no trace' in central Oregon and that included packing everything out and not using toilet paper and actually going to the bathroom in the woods! Some of y'all need to drop the 'all waste is evil' puritanism. Guess what? We're animals! Read Cradle to Cradle.
It's a silly topic.. I appreciate the advice that going in the ocean is better. Taking a dump in the sand is clearly less than ideal.
But if anyone's really worried about this stuff, it might be more worthwhile and meaningful to evaluate one's indoor water usage, no?
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shoreranger Posted 11:55 pm
25 Jun 2007
"All waste is evil"
I agree with the implication that waste is a natural part of the ecosystem. What more people need to take account of is the concentration of waste. That is where much of the problem comes from.
It reminds me of the dog owners who choose to argue against the picking-up of dog waste based on the premise that dog waste is "natural". Dogs are territorial and travel in packs naturally. If left to their own devices one pack of less than a dozen dogs would cover a significant area and keep other dogs out. There would be no where near the concentration of dogs that exists now in our cities.
Human waste is "natural". Concentrating millions of humans at the shore during a 3-6 month period of the year is not "natural", and the concentrration of waste they bring with them is not natural, as well. This also goes for trails in "the woods". Hundreds of millions of visitors to our national parks and forests each year is a lot of waste concentrated just off of trails and campsites, not dispursed throughout the millions of acres of land that actually constitutes our parks and forests. Those "srips" and "patches" cannot sustain all that waste, and the rest of the acres cannot endure the trampling of so many hikers and campers looking for a space to "do what comes naturally". Even if it gets burried, in just a few days it may not be possible to see withthe naked eye how many little turd-holes had been recently dug in a spot the current pooper may assume has not seen human presence in hundreds of years. The best solution: LNT's take it with you. You will be glad the person before you did. Burying it is simply just not good enough.
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wilderness Posted 6:45 am
27 Jun 2007
pharmaceuticals anyone?
I'm a little disapointed in the coverage of this since i think it rests on an out-dated assumption, namely that our urine is 'practically sterile'. While that may have been technically true in a pre-synthetic time, i'd be inclined to doubt that all the chemicals, hormones etc. that pass through us after consuming antibiotics, birth control pills, viagra, zoloft and all the other tasty meds contemporary beach pissers are likely to have ingested are terribly good for wildlife and ecosystems.
Since we can never know definitively what the impacts of excreting these partially metabolized compounds will be, i think that in most cases the precautionary principle would suggest peeing and pooing as far away from any body of water as possible, if only to allow the nasties more time to get filtered by the soil etc. The key is to be mindful of where you're relieving yourself and tinkling as lightly on the earth as possible.
Anyone have any scientific data to support or negate this theory? I'd like to know more (eg. the endocrine disrupting properties of synthetics).
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thriftynerdyjockmom Posted 1:09 am
28 Jun 2007
plastic penis
You can re-purpose a large yogurt container lid to make a 'stand-up' device. Curl the sides together into place & cut a v notch into the edge to use as your aiming device.
We were told by Idaho river guides (among others) to pee in the fast-moving river. Solid waste was packed out.
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Elliotte Posted 6:57 am
03 Jul 2007
Featured in Newspaper
Thought you might like to know that this column was discussed in the Charleston, SC Post and Courier newspaper. (7/3/07) Their conclusion was neither, you should use a public restroom.
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