Waste flown out of park

Hikers in the Olympic National Park use 92 "privies" to relieve their bodily functions, 72 of them pit toilets.

The other 20 are eight vault toilets and 12 Romtech toilets, which are emptied once a year. On Thursday and Friday, a helicopter pilot transported 50-gallon drums of human waste from Romtech toilets and entire vault toilets from Olympic National Park trails to the causeway at Lake Cushman, where ONP personnel were waiting. The causeway was closed to traffic during the operation.

The facilities at Flapjack Lakes and Lena Lake were among those emptied.

Park employees hiked to the sites of the vaults and Romtechs and awaited the arrival of the helicopter, said Zachary Gray, who works in facilities management for ONP. They then attached the steel drums and vault toilets to the end a long cable to be taken away, he said.

The waste was transported to Sol Duc Air Field, where pumper trucks removed the waste and took it to a disposal facility, Gray said.

Because the annual operation is always conducted after Labor Day, inclement weather is sometimes a challenge, Gray said. Coordinating the efforts with park staff is also a challenge, he said.