Ongoing pollution problems associated with the use of cesspits in Bermuda are forcing Government to consider new long-term options for handling human waste, The Royal Gazette has learned.

Bermuda's myriad cesspits are known to contaminate ground water with nitrates as a result of waste seeping into the soil and down to the groundwater and this problem is growing, Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott admitted this week.

Among the technology options Bermuda is looking toward is the composting toilet - an idea, environmentalists suggest, whose time has come.

Conservationist Dr. David Wingate recently raised the call for a move to composting toilets at an environmental conference and it is not unwelcome to Government, The Royal Gazette was told.

Local homeowners need not expect to see the technology thrust upon them soon, but Government is considering testing composting toilets at areas such as Spittal Pond.

"We're talking about using them in parks and nature reserves because they don't use the toxic chemicals associated with normal loos," said Conservation Officer Jeremy Madeiros. "They produce a product that may be usable and is certainly more environmentally friendly."

If the composting toilets prove to be a success in replacing portable chemical toilets, such as that currently used at Spittal Pond, "we could use them to replace all the toilets in the parks", he added.

While composting toilets come in models similar to portable chemical toilets, they are also easily adaptable to concrete buildings.

"They are almost a straight replacement," in terms of size and location to Bermuda's current cesspits, Mr. Madeiros said.

They may offer the long-term solution Bermuda desperately needs to its greater issues of human waste management.

"Without a doubt, the cesspits are seeping into the ground water below the Island and the problem is much worse in densely populated areas," Dr. Kent Simmons, a scientist with the Bermuda Biological Station for Research who studies air and water pollution, told The Royal Gazette.

He added: "Our cesspits are basically just a big hole we put in the ground without a floor but with several openings to allow waste water out. The whole design is for it to seep so we don't have to empty it as often."

When cesspits are emptied by the sanitation companies, the waste is collected and taken to a facility across from Tynes' Bay and, ultimately, pumped off the South Shore.

Alternatively, modern composting toilets are fairly compact, enclosed units which fit under or behind a bathroom - and have come a long way from the era of the outhouse.

They are waterless with waste and toilet paper dropping into a composting container similar in theory to those used for food waste.

Liquids are drained or evaporated off and what remains is broken down aerobically (with air) by bacteria and fungi ultimately resulting in a soil like substance which can be buried or used as fertiliser on lawns.

Exhaust vents pass resulting gases out of the chamber while small fans pump air in to speed the process and help eliminate odour.

Composting toilet manufacturers claim they are an efficient, odourless method of reducing solid waste to ten to 30 percent of its original volume and household models designed for families of four tend to start at roughly $1,000 in the US and Australia.

The technology tends to be more attractive to rural areas which lack the population base to support a full-scale waste treatment facility, Dr. Simmons said - an option Bermuda is also considering.

Composting toilets offer a considerably more environmentally friendly alternative to Bermuda's current system.

Both Minister Scott and environmentalists agree that, while our currents methods of waste management may not be dangerous yet, in the long term we must find another method.

"These nitrate levels (in local ground water) are monitored day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month," Mr. Scott said.

If these levels are rising now, they will continue to rise if Bermuda continues to develop, he added.

"You can just look around," Dr. Simmons said. "Every house has a cesspit and look at the number of houses."

While no one should be drinking Bermuda's ground water unless it comes from a licensed well tested by the Health Department, the nitrate levels in the water may ultimately affect human health.

"There are only a few isolated areas where the ground water is fresh enough to drink," Dr. Simmons said.

"But sometimes people have wells and they taste the water and they can't taste the nitrates so they pump it into their tanks to top up the supply in dry periods.

"This is not a good idea."

Consuming nitrate-contaminated water can pose particular dangers to young children as it inhibits the bloodstream's ability to absorb oxygen, he said.

"What can happen is what they call 'blue babies'. The child's fingertips and lighter tissues inside the mouth and tongue take on a bluish tinge" he said.

"Over time, the condition can cause suffocation due to a lack of sufficient oxygen getting to the tissues."

While nitrates do not affect adults as severely, possible bacterial contaminants in Bermuda's ground water could certainly cause a number of health problems, he added.

Another environmental cost of cesspit seepage, may be mass fish-kills such as that seen in Harrington Sound in 1997, when hundreds of dead pinfish washed up on the shores.

"We're not sure what has happened (in terms of fish kills) is directly related to cesspits," Dr. Simmons said, "but with more nitrate and more waste there is speculation that might be one reason these things happen."

Scientists believe this is a larger problem in relatively enclosed bodies of water such as Harrington Sound, Jew's Bay and Hamilton Harbour because there is less mixing of these waters with the open ocean.

In theory, increased nitrate levels in the water can cause algae to grow more rapidly in these areas.

More fish come to the area to eat the algae but the algae grows so rapidly and uses up so much of the oxygen in the water that the fish die.

"This is something we know happens but we can't really say why," Dr. Simmons said.

While the solution to Bermuda's cesspit problems is not yet at our doors - or bathroom doors - it is under study.

In issuing his call for local composting toilet, Dr. Wingate suggested phasing the environmentally-damaging technology out over a period of decades.

"We could phase out cesspits over the next 20 years and make composting toilets duty free," he said. "We could get the very best quality available. We can afford it."

The Minister of Works and Engineering agrees but is keeping his options open.

"This is something that will have to be discussed and we'll certainly have conferences and caucuses with engineers and scientists to look at it," Mr. Scott said.

"Dr. Wingate has fired an early shot on how we might move forward, but I think it is the responsible thing to do and he certainly has a point."

While the idea may be environmentally attractive and technically feasible for Bermuda, Dr. Simmons believes there might also be considerable public resistance to it.

"I'm not saying it would not work, but people want dishwashers rather than to do dishes, and laundry machines rather than scrub boards," he said.

"People are always looking for the easier way and I don't know if they would want the additional task of maintaining a composting toilet."