marshall_septic_system
SEPTIC: Marshall residents celebrated the completion of the town’s collective wastewater system, a project begun in 2007, on Wednesday at Tony’s Restaurant. “The benefits are obvious now, but were cloudy and contentious back in the day,” said Lori Kyle, who is pictured at left and is the president of the East Shore Planning Group. “It takes a village to make such a process—and it takes a county.” Above, Liza Crosse, aide to Supervisor Steve Kinsey and the “queen” of the project, receives a plaque.    David Briggs

Marshall residents on Wednesday celebrated the completion of the town’s community wastewater system, a $3.21 million project begun in the early 2000s that now serves around 50 properties along the east shore of Tomales Bay. The community system replaces individual septic systems, many of which were long ago deemed sources of pollution in the bay. “That’s 15,000 gallons not being discharged into the bay,” said Lorene Jackson, the project’s manager for the Marin County Community Development Agency, referring to the system’s total daily capacity. “It’s pretty darn exciting.” The final few of 17 properties—including Tony’s Seafood Restaurant, where a celebration was held Wednesday afternoon—comprising the project’s phase two were hooked into the existing communal system in February, after most other properties came online last fall. Phase one, which included 35 residences and businesses, was completed in 2008. Property owners agreed to pay around $20,000 each in annual installments to repay state loans over a 20-year period, with around $1,000 in extra annual fees for operation and maintenance costs. Homes in the system now send waste from their septic tanks through a force main to storage tanks and a leach field on the Barinaga-Goodman Ranch, located upland of the post office. All onsite residential septic tanks were upgraded and fitted with effluent pumps, and phase two added a communal secondary-treatment unit that increased the leach field’s capacity by 25 percent. A 2001 survey showed 40 percent of the town’s onsite systems were failing or performing poorly. That survey followed a 1998 viral outbreak that sickened 171 people who ate local shellfish, though many residents contended that no scientific studies were done to show the shellfish were contaminated by leaky septic systems from Marshall homes. “There was no evidence,” said Paul Elmore, the former president of the East Shore Planning Group. “But that doesn’t make any difference.” At the time, county officials said septic systems would not have met state septic standards that established certain setbacks from waterways for leach fields. Gathering waste into a communal system both complied with regulations and saved residents money, since they no longer needed to secure individual permits to fix their own systems. “The project took on the job of individuals getting permits,” said Liza Crosse, an aide to Supervisor Steve Kinsey who played a leading role in securing state and county funds for the project. “And everyone is very happy to have sewage up and out of the bay.”