Dispute Over Outhouse At Amish School

EBENSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Members of a small Amish community in
western Pennsylvania have to decide by tomorrow whether to
challenge a state order over their school's outhouses.
The school sits on Andy Swartzentruber's farm 70 miles east of
Pittsburgh. A state judge has ruled that he and the school are in
violation of the state sewage disposal law.
The community is one of the most conservative in the Amish
Christian sect. And the practice has been to collect the waste in a
bucket and dump it onto a field. But the county says they have to
install a holding tank and hire a certified sewage hauler.
Swartzentruber is refusing to pay the fine of more than $500.
During a break while tilling a field, he told The Associated Press
he'd rather go to jail than violate his religious principles.
County officials acknowledge jail's not the answer. But a lawyer
for the sewage enforcement agency says, "I still have to find a
way to solve the problem."