Saline Preservation Association

The Saline Preservation Association has been around a long time, but has kept itself well hidden until now.

SPA is a non-profit organization providing an informational conduit both between and among governing agencies and a widely dispersed community who visit the Saline Valley and its Warm Springs. SPA's goal is protection, preservation and conservation of the valley to include geology, wildlife habitat, archeology, and a traditional human presence that emphasizes responsible individual freedom of choice.

It's got a message forum, too.

Their December 1999 newsletter included this announcement of the construction of pit toilets:

VAULT TOILETS IMMINENT AT SPRINGS

By the time you read this, The National Park Service should have completed the installation of three vault toilets at Saline Valley Warm Springs. According to Jed Davis, chief of maintenance for Death Valley National Park (DEVA), the decision was made to replace the existing volunteer-built outhouses with vault toilets because of the possibility that pit toilets may contaminate the water sources at the Springs. However, no hydrological studies were done to validate this opinion.

The Park did consider the possibility of installing composting toilets, which are used in remote settings in other National Parks, but decided that composting toilets would not be able to handle the user load at peak visitor times, and would require too much maintenance.

One double unit will be placed just below the location of the present north outhouse at the Lower Springs. A single unit will be placed on the south side of camp at the Lower Springs, a bit north of the location of the old outhouse. A third unit will be placed at the Palm Spring. The plan calls for the removal of both existing pit toilets at the Lower Springs once the vault toilets have been installed. For now, at least one outhouse will be left at Palm Spring, to supplement the single vault toilet.

The new vault toilets will still be cleaned by the visitor community and/or the Camp Host and will require pumping only once a year, or perhaps once every two years. Toilet paper will be supplied by NPS in case lots. If you've ever used government issue toilet paper, you know that there will still be a need for, shall we say, more "user friendly" supplies. Please don't hesitate to keep donating your favorite brand to augment what_s furnished.

Over the years, our outhouses have been dug, maintained, and supplied by volunteers. Just because our volunteer services will no longer be required in this one area, please don't think that the spirit of volunteerism is extinct at the Springs! There are many other activities and supplies that require volunteer support. Please check with our Camp Host or contact SPA by phone, letter, or e-mail to inquire what you can do to help.

In all the times I've been to Saline Valley I've never seen the promised NPS toilet paper.

Here's an update from Spring 2001:

Many of us who have visited the Springs in the last couple months have expressed a great deal of concern about the maintenance of the toilet facilities that the Park Service installed over a year ago. Since their installation in December 1999, these vault toilets have been pumped out only once. As of Easter, they were filled to near capacity. In fact, the single unit at Palm Spring had reached the point that it needed either pumped or closed to prevent a serious health problem.

The problem seemed to be that the Park Service didn't own a pumping truck large enough to service these facilities. The only time the units were serviced, it was done by a private contractor from Ridgecrest. Apparently the trip didn't pencil out, and that contractor is no longer interested in making the drive into the valley.

In a phone conversation with SPA, Chief Ranger Bill Blake explained that in order to alleviate the immediate problem, the Park Service brought a 300 gallon trailer-mounted pumping unit in to the valley and partially serviced the Palm Spring facility after Easter Weekend. For the long term, the Park has ordered a larger truck-mounted pumper that should allow them to keep better control of the situation. We haven't received word of the delivery date of the new truck, but let's hope it's soon!

And here's something in their June 2001 issue that explains why this group has been so hard to locate:

In keeping with SPA's published policy of "Publicity Containment," we have recently turned down several requests to link our web page with others. SPA's web presence exists solely to keep you, our members, informed of developments concerning the Springs. It is not and never was intended as a resource for anyone not already on our membership list. For that reason, we will continue to refuse to knowingly be linked to any other site or web page. We'd also ask our members not to publish our web address on any newsgroups, listservers, or e-mail lists that can be accessed by people who are not already on our membership list.

SPA realizes that there are already dozens of web sites devoted to the Valley, and we certainly support the concept of the free exchange of information. However, we also are also aware of our commitment to our membership as specified in our by-laws, and for that reason will not allow our site to be used by others as a reference for people looking for a new place to spend a weekend.

People will find the Springs on their own as they have for years. We believe that anyone who undertakes the trip over the Valley roads to reach the Springs should be welcomed, just as we all were on our first visits. Chances are, anyone who makes the effort to find the place on their own is someone we'd like to have as a member anyway. We simply choose not to make it any easier for them the first time.

They don't even have information about themselves posted at the springs, so the only way you could be one of the insiders would be a personal invitation from another member.

The February 2002 newsletter has an article about the planned elimination of non-historical palm trees from Death Valley National Park. If that's still a plan, it's going very slowly and they haven't touched any in Saline Valley.