Proposed change is wasteful over-reach
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Editor,
Lake County Environmental Health Department has scheduled a public meeting to be held on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 1:30 p.m. in the Lake County Public Health conference room located at 802 Main Street. The Department’s goal is to collect public comment on the proposed amendment (Section 3.3E) to the Wastewater Treatment System Regulations for single family homes. What is being proposed? The Department will no longer be designing wastewater treatment systems.
“All wastewater treatment systems must be designed by a professional engineer, a registered sanitarian in private practice, or a site evaluator.” It sounds okay at first glance, doesn’t it? A site evaluator is defined as “Professional Engineers specializing in civil, environmental, sanitary, or agricultural engineering; persons with B.S. Degrees in geology, hydrogeology, or soils science and Registered Sanitarians with sufficient knowledge of soils enabling them to perform satisfactory site evaluations.” Would you agree, it begins to sound like a lot of extra red tape, potential delays, rather expensive and maybe a bit overreaching? Commercial, lakefront, creek or wetland frontage may warrant such an overreach. Much evidence has been garnered by local septic installers confirming that the last Wastewater Treatment Regulations passed in 2006 requiring either a siphon or pressurized septic design have failed miserably. What has failed? The septic installation cost for a new or replacement septic system have nearly tripled. The extra cost is due to the required electrical pump, electricity installation, dual or triple septic tank compartments, more material for mounding, etcetera; all the meanwhile generally failing due to a flawed Montana Environmental Health Department “recommended” design: 1/8 inch PVC percolating sized septic field holes which easily clog and/or a failed electric pump express the two common and expensive reported failures. These failures have resulted in local “push-back” in favor of the historical “gravity-flow” design, which has been quite successful in Europe for 2,000-plus years.
Please show up and provide the courtesy of participation on this important issue. Mission Valley area real estate values, especially land, have not recovered significantly since the 2008 crash.
David Passieri
St. Ignatius
