Amish refuse to abide by outhouse rules

Ebensburg, USA - 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 1 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."