EBENSBURG — Amish farmer Andy Swartzentruber is determined to live the simple life of his forefathers, plowing his field with a horse-drawn tractor, getting around in a horse-drawn buggy and offering eggs for sale to help support his family.

But now he and a school elder in his Amish settlement are being compelled to defend their religious beliefs over an unlikely issue: sewage.

The two say that they will not comply with state code that governs how they handle waste from two outhouses at their community's schoolhouse. The men are members of the Swartzentruber Amish, one of the Christian group's most conservative wings. Their only Pennsylvania settlement is the one here, about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Their refusal to budge has left officials in a quandary: They are not eager to throw the offenders in jail, but also believe they need to apply the law uniformly and prevent contamination of water supplies.

Waste from the outhouses has been collected in plastic buckets, then dumped onto fields. The county is demanding the Amish install a holding tank and contract with a certified sewage hauler for disposal.

"I'd rather go to jail, and abide by our religion," Swartzentruber, his face and clothes dusty, told The Associated Press recently, while taking a break from tilling a field.

A district judge in April found Swartzentruber, on whose land the outhouses sit, and school elder Sam Yoder, in violation of state sewage disposal law.

A Wednesday deadline to appeal the ruling, or face more than $500 each in fines, passed without any action on their part.

Another hearing is likely in the next two weeks, according to the office of District Judge Michael Zungali, who issued the original ruling.

Local officials say putting the men in jail won't solve anything.

"That's a huge sacrifice. I believe in their sincerity," said William Barbin, attorney for the Cambria County Sewage Enforcement Agency. "But I still have to find a way to solve the problem."

Zungali has said he hasn't decided what to do if the farmers don't comply — but might impose community service instead of jail time.

"It's the judge's call," Barbin said Wednesday. "Whatever the judge says is fine with us."

Swartzentruber and Yoder represented themselves in court, where Yoder also said he would not pay the fine or appeal, county officials said. Because the Amish do not have phones in their homes, Yoder could not be reached for comment.