Septic regulations will be delayed; rewrite ordered

Issue Date: February 4, 2009

By Dave Kranz
CFBF Communications/News Division

After hearing from rural residents and environmentalists alike, water officials say they will rewrite proposed new state regulations on septic systems.

The State Water Resources Control Board said Friday that it will redraft the regulations.

"The State Water Board is sensitive to the concerns raised at the public workshops, and the regulations will be revised following consideration of the public comments, as appropriate," the board said in announcing the changes.

As a result, a public hearing on the proposed regulations, originally scheduled for Feb. 9 in Sacramento, has been postponed "until further notice," the board said. It has also extended the period for written comments on the new regulations. And it has rescheduled a Santa Rosa workshop that had to be postponed when the turnout of concerned citizens was too large for the meeting room.

"We welcome the rewrite of these regulations," California Farm Bureau Federation Water Resources Director Danny Merkley said. "Farm Bureau will continue to work with the board, to make sure the eventual regulations safeguard water quality without putting undue burdens on people who live in rural communities."

Rural residents had become increasingly concerned about the proposed regulations. Written to conform to mandates contained in a state law passed in 2000, known as Assembly Bill 885, the regulations would have imposed inspection and reporting requirements on property owners. The law aims to prevent discharges of waste that impair or threaten surface water or groundwater quality.

The proposed regulations would have required persons who discharge waste that impairs or threatens water to file a waste-discharge report with a regional water board. Regional boards would be allowed to issue waivers of the reporting requirement, but only after septic systems were inspected for solids accumulations and groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for nearly 20 different potential components. Under the regulations, the inspections would have had to be performed every five years, at a current, estimated cost of $325 per inspection.

Under the proposed rules, property owners with a septic system within 600 feet of a surface water body that does not meet water quality standards would have faced additional requirements, including potential retrofit of septic systems.

The water board said it had rescheduled its Santa Rosa workshop for a new date and a larger venue. Two identical sessions will be held Feb. 9 at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Ruth Finley Person Theater, 50 Mark West Springs Road in Santa Rosa. The sessions begin at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The water board said a separate public hearing on the regulations will be rescheduled "once the regulations have been redrafted."

In addition, the water board said it has extended the deadline for comments on the septic-system regulations. Written comments may be submitted until Feb. 23 at 12 noon. Comments should be mailed to Todd Thompson; Division of Water Quality; State Water Resources Control Board; 1001 I St.; P.O. Box 2231; Sacramento, CA 95812. Comments may also be sent via fax, (916) 341-5463, or via e-mail: AB885@waterboards.ca.gov.

The board directed questions to Thompson at (916) 341-5518 or to Director of Public Participation Gita Kapahi at (916) 341-5501.

(Dave Kranz is editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at dkranz@cfbf.com.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top