This week marks the 20th anniversary of the International
Conference on the Assessment of the Role of Carbon Dioxide and of other
Greenhouse Gasses in Climate Variations and Associated Impacts. It was
just 89 scientists from 23 countries meeting in Villach, Austria, discussing
for the first time how their work on climate studies might fit together.
Their conclusions were shocking.
Jim Bruce, a Canadian government climatologist, coordinated
the drafting of a stunning statement that said, "In the first half
of the next century, a rise in global mean temperature could occur which
is greater than any times in Man’s history and the results would
be disastrous."
As reported in the current issue of The New Scientist,
conference attendees agreed that the causes of catastrophe "would
be profoundly affected by government policies," and they called
for the urgent "consideration of a global convention" to look
at ways to manage the threat.
The UN started to form a purely scientific committee to
advise governments on global warming, but the Reagan Administration
insisted on an unavoidably politicized intergovernmental
agency with its scientists appointed by individual governments. The
result was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and it’s
taken 20 years for the truth the scientists spoke at Villach to emerge
into the public consciousness.
Politicized? The Bush Administration, say many scientists,
asks how their colleagues feel about Roe v. Wade before appointing them
to one of these panels. On global warming, perhaps it should be Row
v. Wade, to borrow a joke from our editor.
The science of global warming is a global issue. What
we need locally is for science to shine some light on the quite frankly
ridiculous position taken by James Giannopoulis of the State Water Resources
Control Board staff. Giannopoulis is in charge of drafting new state
septic-tank regulations under Assembly Bill 885.
As reported in previous Light articles on AB 885,
California is one of only two states that have not adopted statewide
septic regulations. Giannopoulis has taken so long coming up with regulations
for California, AB 885 (which mandated his work) has now expired.
There is, however, one advantage to the delay. Californians
can now see if other states’ regulations have lowered the supposed
risks to humans that California’s State Water Resources Control
Board staff keeps fussing about.
What effect have all the new septic-system regulations
around the country had? A check of Center for Disease Control Morbidity
& Mortality Reports reveals that since new regulations went
into effect around the US, there has been no significant change in the
amount of water-borne diseases and e-coli infections. None.
There are environmental issues in any septic regulations,
of course. In certain cases, there can be problems caused by nitrogen
and other nutrients contaminating groundwater. Oregon has given us a
good example of how the problem can be solved.
In order to protect the groundwater supply of the famed
trout-fishing streams and drinking-water wells in the La Pine area,
the State of Oregon conducted an extensive study of advanced septic
systems. As it turned out, keeping these nutrients from contaminating
groundwater isn’t nearly as complicated and doesn’t cost nearly
as much as the State of California and some of the sanitary engineers
would have us believe.
What biological material humans feed into their septic
tanks has been fed into the environment for hundreds of thousands of
years. Tomales Bay once absorbed without degradation the waste from
a resident population of up to 16,000 Coast Miwok, a well as thousands
of elk, seals, otters, and birds. Significantly, there’s some pretty
conclusive evidence that a shellfish population goes down when the water
is too clean.
Does West Marin want state septic-system draconian regulations
to protect groundwater if the regulations require replacing non-failing
septic systems (for up to $70,000) plus per home, as well as an annual
county-monitoring charge of more than $1,000 per year per household?
And that’s before we talk about the burden to county government
of having to regularly check on almost half the septic systems in Marin.
The true threats to groundwater come from industrial chemicals
such as MBTE, contaminated runoff from cities and large paved areas,
and depletion by excessive pumping from wells.
We really need an independent agency to review the science
and put the true risks in perspective. For the moment, it’s hard
to avoid the conclusion that state government finds it easier to pick
on individual septic tank owners rather than on those responsible for
very large and very significant threats to California’s groundwater.