George, you raise a lot of points again, and thanks for the attaboy. I forget that nobody is really keeping up with the 132 previous posts, but it gets frustrating to go back over this stuff again and again. This is all described somewhere above.
First point George, your SEKI NPS management commented on the EA in a letter to Inyo. They strongly recommended NOT going with the wag bags, stating their very own NPS negative experience with them due to lack of compliance. So no, SEKI is not requiring them either.
The EA was actually a very well written document. The only thing shoddy or dishonest was the way it was handled. The problem was that it recommended installing new toilets. The District Ranger at the time, Garry Oye, didn't like the preferred alternative. (He since moved to the NPS in Washington by the way and I would love to debate him on what he did.) He was dead set on going with wag bags and he abused the process to get that result. The first thing he did was change the preferred alternative in the public notice, so it didn't match the Environmental Assessment. This created confusion, a lot of work for his staff explaining things and several commenters raised questions about it. Inyo sent me copies of all the EA comments so I know what I'm talking about. The hiker groups went for wag bags and generally recommended lower quotas. That's why they looked the other way while Garry made a mockery of NEPA. Individuals, on the other hand, overwhelmingly opposed wag bags and wanted the toilets replaced. But individuals don't really matter in the environmental process, they don't sue.
Then came nothing. Inyo did a pilot study with toilets and wag bags and nobody really complained much because they still had toilets. Then came the memo. It looked a lot like a NEPA decision memo. It was circulated as if it were an environmental document. After years of delay and poor maintenance, surprise, the toilets were so worn out he claimed he had to act on an emergency basis to remove them. The memo thanked the hikers for their positive feedback and for helping him find a solution. That's the lie I refer to above. Garry, please feel free to respond if you're reading this from Washington.
So the Environmental Assessment process is supposed to end with a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) which means they can proceed with the selected alternative. Or if there are significant impacts, and the EA identified many potential impacts with the wag bag program, then an Environmental Impact Statement is required before they can proceed with the alternative. Well, Garry implemented the Wag Bag Alternative in the EA without completing either. That's why his memo was not actually a decision document. And that's why they can't issue a Forest Order requiring you to use a Wag Bag. I can't believe I'm writing this again.
Having explained all that, as I've written above, it would be easy for a law student to force them to go back and complete the NEPA process since they implemented an alternative with known impacts without completing the process. But in the end, they would undermine the effort to establish and maintain a working toilet system. That's why I haven't been in favor of that approach. Maybe I'm wrong about that. It might be the only way to get anything going.
As to moving forward, it takes an official organized group, with the threat of a lawsuit or perhaps an actual lawsuit, and someone who can sustain a frustrating effort to build a coalition to eventually get something done. As you can tell from my writing style, I don't have that level of patience. I'm a designer and builder. I can tell you what's feasible, I can design it and I can build it. But don't ask me to sit through meeting after meeting playing Kumbaya with people dreaming in fantasyland of how they can change human nature with nothing but time. Sorry if I've insulted planners, but you gotta admit deep down it can feel that way sometimes.
Last point, George. Do you recognize this toilet in a designated wilderness in your SEKI NP? Pear Lake ring a bell, due west from Whitney? It's not a flush model WILDERNESS toilet like the one at SEKI High Sierra Camp at Bearpaw on the High Sierra Trail, but it does the job and it looks pretty nice to me. Much better than plastic bags full of crap.
