Septic Lakes Kill All Water Life on Center

Our family moved to the Meher Center in 1966. That's longer than any living person except the Haynes family. The cabins were empty in those days. The only people that came from time to time were the few who had met Baba there in 1958. There was a single person staying on the Center when we came, in Lake Cabin.

Starting in 1967 the Center began to fill up. Today the Center stays filled up year round. The Meher Center is one of the few places that still has septic tanks, very old ones, that hover over its Long Lake from its cabins with toilets. Briarcliffe Acres that adjoins the Center uses the city sewer system.

When we arrived on the Center you could see fish, small alligators, turtles, and waterfowl right from the Center bridge. You could drop a crumb of bread from the bridge and the fish would leap at it. You could catch minnows with a can from the boat house a few feet away. Ospreys openly fished and you could see the fish in their talons as the emerged from their dives. In the winter you could spot hundreds of coots fishing in the distance. In the last two decades all that is gone. The water is black, the birds are gone, the fish are gone, the turtles are gone. And the alligators that live on fish remain in the long extension near the barn. Even the seaweed is gone.

A tour along the shore under the cabins with septic tanks, either in a boat or walking the path, reveals the stench of septic leakage. It is obvious.

Such septic can kill the life in a lake by disrupting the oxygen levels. This is clearly the cause.

The Center organization has a theory that the cause of the death of Long Lake is runoff of fertilizer and pesticide from the golf courses on the far side of the highway.

Proximity of Norman Golf Course from Long Lake (near ocean)

There are two problems with this theory. The Norman Gold Course is a full mile from the Center lakes, and is separated by the Intracoastal Waterway, which provides a 40 feet deep drainage for any runoff from the golf course. The smelly septic tanks on the other hand hover directly over the lake.

But it is the second problem that is the killer. A sign of life in a lake is its water birds. Ducks, coots, ospreys, swans, and herons all live on fish. All these birds are gone from the Center Lake, where they were once seen in the thousands.

At the bottom Alligator Lake is marked.

But a short walk to Alligator Lake (marked at the bottom of the map above) one still finds birds fishing. Approaching the shore one hear ducks taking off and squawking. Yet that tiny pond is just as proximate to any golf courses as Long Lake.

What about the science the Center uses? The philosopher of science Norwood Hanson (1924-1967) was the first to described that scientific testing can be "theory laden." The theory a scientist has will largely determine his tests. So, what he believes he should find, will influence what experiments he will choose, the instruments he will use, the conditions under which the test is done, and what tests he will not consider doing. Hence there is a large likelihood that testing will come up with the conclusions the scientist began with. In short, even the best science is prone to confirmation bias.

The Center which is financing the tests currently, has a strong motive to put the blame for the death of its wildlife somewhere else besides itself. A Golf Course would supply just the thing. This allows the Center to continue its cheap motel paradigm, by charging low rates for cabins on the lake while avoiding connecting to the city sewer, which would be a large expense.

It is funny that the Meher Center once prided itself as a State Wildlife Sanctuary. This prevented hunting and fishing, but not the leakage of septic sewage into the lakes -- killing more life than any hunter or fisherman could. Gone even are the minnows.

The Solution

The Center needs to stop doubling down on its cheap motel model, that has caused it to resort to inviting guests not interested in Baba to the Center to pay the bills. It needs to immediately close the cabins over the lake from overnight visitors, connect the rest to the Myrtle Beach sewer system, and find a new source of income besides cabin rental. If that cannot be done, then some of the land should be sold, as the nonprofit organization now in charge of this land is obviously not able to take care of such a large parcel, as the total death of its water wildlife demonstrates.

Any other solution puts money above any other principle, be it stewardship of a natural habitat it claims to protect, or its commitment to remaining a place devoted to giving information about Meher Baba, as opposed to providing cheap accommodations to frequently drug taking unmarried 'spiritual' tourists.

Tests that can be done to determine if the septic leakage is the culprit include comparison testing of oxygen levels in Alligator Lake (that does not have septic tanks on its shore), lakes in Briarcliffe Acres (that do not have septic tanks), and lakes on or near the Norman Golf Course. This kind of comparison provides scientific control and avoids bias. No amount of testing Long Lake by itself will provide this.

Finally, if it is true that septic runoff from very old septic tanks just feet from the lake have caused the loss of life in the lake, then the Center's dredging project was a complete waste of time.