Point Reyes Light - October 25, 2002
Marshall septics to get money
By Ivan Gale
County environmental health officials this week credited the cooperation of the East Shore Planning Group for an $800,000 grant to improve failing or marginal septic systems in the Marshall area.
Rebecca Tuden, a county water-quality liaison on loan from the Environmental Protection Agency, said the State Water Resources Control Board awarded the grant after reviewing information gathered from a round of voluntary inspections through the area last year that was initiated by the Planning Group.
Homes volunteered
Almost half of the 73 homes on the East shore of Tomales Bay volunteered to county inspections, said Tuden. Of the homes inspected, she said forty percent were identified as either failing or marginal.
All homes inspected were built within 150 feet of Tomales Bay. In 1998 Tomales Bay was declared water-quality impaired, the same year 171 people became ill from eating oysters grown in the bay.
Along with such sources as agricultural runoff and effluent from recreational boaters, bayside septic systems are considered a likely source of contamination.
"This is the first time I know of that the County has partnered with a local organization," said Tuden, referring to the East Shore Planning Group. "I think it represents a real change in cooperation (with the community) and the willingness to address the problem."
Tuden explained the grants will be used to share the costs of upgrades along with property owners. Current county estimates are around $50,000 per home for failing or marginal systems. She said most septic systems will either be moved higher up on the hillside or, when feasible, be connected to a community leachfield.
More inspections planned
A further effort to do confidential, voluntary inspections will next be conducted along the West shore of Tomales Bay to homes that abut Lagunitas Creek in the San Geronimo Valley, Tuden said.