Point Reyes Light- December 3, 1998

Tomales Bay septic systems may all get inspected

In a move unsettling to Marshall homeowners, state health inspectors last week said they plan to inspect dozens of septic systems along the east shore of Tomales Bay to try to find the source of last May's shellfish-poisoning outbreak.

The cause of poisoning, which sickened more than 170 people who ate oysters, was identified as a Norwalk-like virus transmitted through human feces. But the source of the pollution - whether a boater, kayaker, camper, or household septic system - has never been pinpointed.

To determine whether a failing septic system caused the outbreak, inspectors with Regional Water Quality Control Board are set this month to examine all 85 bayside homes between Ocean's Roar and Marconi Cove, the areas closest to the contaminated oyster beds.

But after being sent a four-and-a-half page questionnaire last week asking who exactly lives in their homes, how long they have lived there, whether they are renters or homeowners, and how many bedrooms they have, many Marshall residents feel unfairly targeted, said Paul Elmore, head of the East Shore Planning Group.

At 7:30 p.m. next Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the Dance Palace, representatives from Regional Water Quality, Department of Health Services, and County of Marin are scheduled to field questions about the questionnaire and septic survey.

"Many of us are withholding filling out that questionnaire until we hear from the state," Elmore said.

If a widespread problem with failing septic systems is discovered on the east shore of the bay, the same survey will likely be expanded to include all bayside residences, said Jack McGurk, the state Department of Health's environmental health chief.

Meanwhile, recreational boaters and kayakers on Tomales Bay have been warned about the importance of keeping the bay clean, and the county is trying to install more public toilet facilities in the area, he said.

Still, Marshall residents complain they've been made scapegoats for polluting Tomales Bay in the absence of any certain evidence that the Norwalk-like virus came from a faulty septic system.

Elmore challenges a state Department of Health Services report that claims that most properties between Nicks Cove and Marconi Cove are "unsuitable for onsite sewage disposal." He said the study even dismisses systems recently built to county code and regularly maintained by the homeowners.

Many older systems cannot conform to current county code, he added, because the properties don't have enough land to meet setback requirements.

"We're sitting on the bay in houses that were built 50 years ago, and were built to code then," he said. "The vast majority of us are trying not to pollute the bay, but they're asking questions here that seems to have do more with current code. Many of us can't conform to code. We simply don't have the room."

Until the area's septic systems are examined, however, they must be considered potential sources of pollution, said Shin-Roei Lee, a senior engineer for the water board.

"Until we do the survey and really understand what the systems are, we can't rule them out," she said. "We really need homeowners' cooperation on a voluntary basis."

Lee said responses to the survey won't likely be kept confidential, noting the information requested is no different than what is required for a septic permit application. The only intent of the survey, she said, is to assess the adequacy of the area's leachfields, not to enforce violations unless extreme negligence is found.

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