Point Reyes Light - October 3, 2002
A harsh septic-system replacement law
By Andrew Pridgen
A proposed county law to force West Marin homeowners to bring their septic systems up to current Environmental Health codes could cost some owners of older homes as much as $100,000.
That was the warning one Realtor made to a throng of 40 people meeting Monday evening at the Dance Palace.
The law, which includes a gun-at-one’s-head amnesty program, was drafted by the Septic Technical Advisory Committee (SepTAC), which was appointed by county supervisors.
The county estimates 7,000 homeowners, most of them in West Marin, would be affected by the ordinance. The public has until Oct. 30 to submit comments on the law to the supervisors.
The proposed law would "streamline the septic system process once and for all," said Philip Smith, chief of county Environmental Health services. Some residents weren’t so sure.
Under the proposed "amnesty" ordinance, residents would be given two years to report permit-less changes to their homes or septic systems and would be allowed to bring the facilities up to code without incurring major penalties.
While Michael Mery of Point Reyes Station, a semi-retired builder and environmental activist, claimed the amnesty plan is "loosey-goosey," other residents joked that by the time the county could figure out which homes need inspections, the amnesty period would have expired.
The penalty for homeowners who knowingly do not take advantage of the amnesty program "is not severe enough," said Mery. He suggested the county levy heavier fines against residents who knowingly fail to heed the program.
Bobo homeowner scared
A Bolinas homeowner who did not want to be identified said he bought a 4,000-square-foot-home in 1999, but it was originally built in 1940, burned down, and was rebuilt in 1963, using the original septic system.
He said he was worried that if he applied for amnesty, he’d end up paying several hundred thousand dollars to get his septic system up to current standards even through the system is working well.
The Bolinas resident said he feared being financially devastated. "You’ll spend a hundred thousand on just the engineering," Marshall Realtor Norman Orr called out, and the audience chuckled.
Smith of Environmental Health said the county is trying to simplify the extensive and expensive permit process for the "modest" remodeling of a home, but there was no agreement as to what should be considered "modest."
A harsher alternative
The SepTAC proposal suggested the public consider an alternative draft of the proposed law to make it more stringent: "Owners whose projects involve the addition of a bedroom will be required to bring their septic systems up to full code...Projects that do not involve adding a bedroom but do add more than 500 square feet are subject to the square-footage limitations contained in the existing regulations."
SepTAC’s proposal to create other local governments to monitor septic systems was generally dismissed by the audience. "The last thing we need is another special district that can’t be fully staffed," said Orr.
Mery said he would rather participate in grassroots monitoring with people hired and supervised by property owners, not just the county.
County staff meanwhile insisted the proposed law is not arbitrary but is similar to laws in other coastal counties, such as Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. A similar program in Santa Cruz costs residents $16 per annum, said Smith.
Some residents skeptical
Although some residents spoke in favor of the SepTAC proposal, others were skeptical.
"If you’re going to make a rule for residents to come into the county [offices] to receive ‘amnesty,’ you better train them how to be clairvoyant," said Orr.
"I’ve been selling and appraising homes here for decades, and sometimes I can’t tell where there’s been a remodel. Most residents who buy their homes...how’re they going to know?"