I Empathize

Out here in Yesha, we can't get the local Arabs to at least cooperate on environmental issues like water and sewerage and waste disposal.

So, I felt sympathy here:

In 29 years of enforcing sewage laws in Pennsylvania, Jack E. Crislip has never faced violators more adamant, or more pleasant to deal with, than members of the ultraconservative Swartzentruber Amish sect.

For the last two and a half years, Mr. Crislip, a planning supervisor for the state’s Environmental Protection Department, and local sewage authorities have had more than 30 meetings in a futile effort to persuade members of the sect here in Cambria County, about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh, to upgrade outhouses next to a schoolhouse so they comply with state sanitation codes.

The schoolhouse is on land belonging to Andy Swartzentruber, 53, one of five elders who guide the 20-family Amish community spread out on farms near Nicktown.

Mr. Swartzentruber was scheduled to be released from county prison on Sunday after serving 90 days for failing to correct the violations at the outhouses. Other members of the Amish community could also end up behind bars if the impasse is not resolved.