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.
Good photo and, really, my point. That was built well before my rough estimate of 10 years for getting serious about Wilderness and/or NEPA compliance. Yet again, it's hard to believe one could be built now. Also, Bearpaw is not in a designated wilderness. It's an enclave outside the wilderness boundary and not subject to those laws. Dial back the gratuitous snark, please.
More importantly, it doesn't "do the job." I have been closely interested in this problem since the mid-90s seeking solutions for Ostrander Ski Hut. In 2008 I wrote one of the people in charge of the Pear Lake one and the one shown in the photo:
There are definate compsoting issues with the Phoenix and Clivus toilets. The one at the hut is a Clivus Multrum. It does not compost well due to the cold weather but it works very well as a holding tank. ... If you're considering one for Ostrander,I'd suggest to only get one if your intentions are to use it as a smell free holding tank, and not for it's composting properties.
You (and others) continue to ignore the relative environmental impacts of "plastic bags full of crap" vs. a large structure and associated maintenance costs and impacts. You cannot demonstrate that, say, hiring another ranger or worker to clean up x number of abandoned wag bags is less of an unacceptable or unworkable environmental impact.
If an agency is going to haul out raw shit, then the maintenance costs and environmental impacts of fewer wag bags is demonstrably less than that of a toilet, of whatever efficiency. That's the hurdle you have to overcome and the standard you have not yet met.
Perhaps the Ranger Station wine cellars became a sticking point?
Well, the power consumption of the wine refrigerator was a small problem. Those darned Bordeaux are just so sensitive to the jostling of mules and temperature fluctuations!
