Glen Canyon National Recreation Area contains Lake Powell, probably the most beautiful reservoir in the world. The shoreline of popular Lone Rock Beach daily hosted more than a thousand campers in the summers when the beachside campers were as much as a mile from the restrooms due to the drawdown of the reservoir. Some campers and beach visitors would resort to disposal of human waste into the shoreline environment making the water unsafe for bathing and causing beach closures.
The National Park Service provided chemical construction toilets on the shorelines but the hot conditions resulted in foul odors and many campers wouldn't use them and the pollution problems continued. It was clear that what the public wanted was flush restrooms.
As the Park Engineer for Glen Canyon NRA, I was given the task of solving this problem. I believed that the best solution would be flush toilets located near the the water's edge. These restrooms would need to be moveable to address the changing levels of the reservoir. To solve this problem I developed the world's first moveable, Microflushtm restroom. These flush restrooms operate without power, sewer, or water utilities, and without direct road access. The toilets proved to be completely odor free and very popular with the public, as well as the maintenance staff who found that these restrooms were extremely durable. Fifteen years later, over sixty of these moveable restroom buildings are still operating without even a hiccup in their history of usage. Since the introduction of the beach restrooms, there have been no beach closures at Lake Powell.
The portable beach restrooms became the precursor to our Rainwater Restrooms which use the same proven concepts, but with significant improvements and new features. Our restrooms extend the boundaries of where flush restrooms are possible.
