Nearly 1.5 million California households live in areas without access
to public sewers, and rely on septic systems to dispose of water used
in their homes. However septic systems can and do fail, leading to
health and/or environmental problems.
California is currently re-writing regulations governing on-site
wastewater under the impetus of AB 885, passed by the legislature
several years ago. Since California is one of just two states that now
do not have effective state oversight, the review process leading to
new regulations was expected to yield positive results. Unfortunately
that has not been the case.
The staff of the State Water Resources Control Board, the lead agency
in the review process, adopted an elaborate process for receiving
“input.” They received a lot of “input” but gave short shrift to
important policy issues. Unfortunately, they also adopted the main
premise of the status quo; namely, households using on-site systems
must be “managed” by local and state bureaucrats to prevent dire
consequences.
Although not yet finalized the latest draft of the regulations heads in the direction of:
Increasing the difficulty for innovative solutions to be used for
on-site wastewater treatment and making it almost impossible to use
zero waste solutions (such as composting toilets and constructed
wetlands);
Raising the financial burden on a selected group of on-site system
users, who, ironically turn out to be least likely to cause pollution
problems;
Completely neglecting the vast majority of potential pollution problems
until a crisis occurs that might force people out of their homes;
Hydro Nova, devoted to consumer education and innovation in wastewater
treatment, takes a very different approach. We believe it is essential
to educate the public about wastewater issues. We believe it is
important for the state to encourage new technology. We believe it is
necessary to create the infrastructure to help households maintain
on-site systems. And, above all, we believe it is critical to bring
costs down and eliminate the current approach of command and control
regulations, based on bureaucratic whim.
Final draft regulations are expected shortly. These will be subject to
a full-scale environmental review, and to public comment this fall.
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