Comforting the Afflicted & Afflicting the Comfortable
By Andrew Pridgen
The grass is greener
The grass is always greener even if yours is in a national park:
In response to articles about acts of "youth vandalism" several Tomales High students have written The Light suggesting changes in the community that would make living in West Marin less boring.
The Light’s favorite suggestions to make living here better: a fast food restaurant and a movie theater.
The letter writers are all-too-aware that Point Reyes Station isn’t going to be the next home of the Whopper and that Century Theatre’s quest for world domination will not be won in Marshall, but why not dream big?
I remember my days growing up in Novato eating Taco Bell, sneaking into movies, and trying to figure out ways for the suburbs to be less boring.
That was about the same time I discovered West Marin.
The grass is always greener especially if it’s enhanced by septic runoff:
In response to ongoing acts of "flagrant grantism" The Light’s written several pieces on the East Shore’s septic problems, but nobody’s talking about solutions.
So, based on The Light’s research on DNA testing and conversations with the EPA, CDC, and other government agencies, we’ve put together a new "Marshall Plan."
The goal of The Light’s plan is to prevent human waste from entering the bay, and preserve the shellfish industry.
To solve the initial problem of the eight allegedly failing septic tanks on the East Shore, The Light suggests installation of up to eight package septic systems like the ones in the EPA’s demonstration project at LaPine in Oregon.
The small units (four-feet long, eight-feet wide, and two-and-a-half-feet deep) were installed to remove nutrients and protect a shallow aquifer that supplies drinking water wells. The units can be installed in 12 hours by state-licensed septic contractors (not engineers) at a cost of about $15,000 each. The completely packaged system also includes a 24-hour monitoring system that can even be accessed on the Internet.
Where there’s a lot of wildlife, as in West Marin, federal EPA officials say DNA testing is essential. Given the concerns over West Nile Virus, Norwalk-like viruses and other pathogens, if we want to live with nature, DNA testing is something we’ll eventually have to do, or be forced to choose between safety and wildlife. DNA Testing of Tomales Bay can be conducted for an estimated cost of $250,000.
Once the DNA tests are complete, the information can be taken right up the road to UCSF, home of the world leaders on microarray testing of viruses (that’s lingo for scientists who have developed a way to identify genetic code from every human, animal, and plant pathogen).
The technology scientists are using at UCSF helps discover and identify diseases that have no known origin (like SARS), fight bioterrorism, and most importantly, could prove exactly when Tomales Bay’s oysters are safe for consumption.
The EPA and World Health Organization, in their "Annapolis Protocol" report point out the method being used now, coliform testing, is a very crude tool and results in unnecessary closures of bays, lakes, streams, and creeks to the public, and largely fails to protect against viruses.
Given the growing importance of this technology, grant money will be available for well-thought-out programs. Shellfish growers would not only get a clearer set of guidelines, but they would also get more harvest days.
If testing shows that even after fixing the failing systems, the septics are dumping untold amounts of e coli into the Bay, then The Light recommends the East Shore copy the town of New Minden, Illinois, which uses a system of collecting the septic discharge and treating it to near-drinking-water standards.
The cost to do this for a town of 135 households? $8,000 to $9,000 per household, plus $18.80 per month per home. Almost all capital costs in New Minden were offset with grant money.
The Light’s plan would put the people on the East Shore in charge of the program.
Residents who’d like to take charge could read the EPA’s publication: Waste Water Options for Smaller Communities, a Trainer Manual for Local Policy Makers. (Those on the East Shore who don’t sleep well at night might also do well to pick up a copy.)
For lighter reading, the importance of who controls the engineers is shown in the four-page A Quick Guide to Small Community Wastewater Treatment, published by the University of Minnesota.
As they politely put it: "Many professionals may be biased towards particular technologies, so they may not seriously consider options they are unfamiliar with or simply don’t like."
Is history repeating itself? Problems with the Straus creamery and others in West Marin led to a grand jury investigation and findings in 2000 that Environmental Health Services was "an inefficient, mismanaged, and overworked agency."
As a result, Environmental Health Services chief Ed Stewart, a 26-year county employee, was fired. With the proposed excessive septic costs in West Marin and no DNA testing to boot, the question of "how is the county functioning now?" has once again been raised.
The grass is always greener unless it is recalled:
In response to another $70 million down the drain and never again wanting to hear the statement: "I’m not a big fan of Davis but..." The Light endorses voting "no" on the recall Tuesday.
Since Gray Davis hasn’t done anything wrong, unless being boring is a crime, the recall from the onset might as well have been just another plot to get an actor to do a politician’s job (or is it the other way around?)
Who knows, maybe if Gray’d eaten a little more fast food or seen a couple more movies, this whole thing wouldn’t be happening.