The volatile and divisive battle over septic system approval apparently reached a truce August 14 when Tuolumne County supervisors voted 5-0 to approve a new ordinance.

“Savor the moment,” smiled board chairman Mark Thornton, who represents District 4.

His district encompasses the south part of Tuolumne County, including about half of the Lake Don Pedro subdivision. That was one of the areas most heavily affected by Environmental Health Department changes that halted construction projects and property sales over the past 18 months and led to the drawn-out battle over the ordinance revision.

District 5 supervisor Dick Pland commented, “it’s been a long journey.” He acknowledged that not everyone was 100 percent happy with the end results of the revision, “but we do have some type of buy-in” on the changes.

“It’s a long giant step from where we were a year and a half ago,” he said.

Only a handful of people in the audience offered comments at Tuesday’s public hearing. That was quite a contrast to the dozens of people who had lined up during many supervisors’ meetings, often expressing outrage and indignation about the stalemate over the issue.

Mark Banks of the Tuolumne County Building Industry told the board Tuesday his group supports the final draft version, as did environmentalist John Sturtevant of the Sierra Club.

Both men said the factor that brought consensus was the addition of a provision calling for “special design” septic systems to be reviewed by a civil engineer.

After that clause was added, Sturtevant said, “It went so smoothly we couldn’t believe it.”
That clause was evidently a concession to builders, realtors and property owners who had repeatedly expressed frustration at having septic system plans rejected by the county’s Environmental Health Department staff.

They had complained to supervisors that the new Environmental Health Director, Brenda Faw, abruptly began rejecting septic systems in January 2006 that previously were commonly accepted without question.

Faw claimed she hadn’t made any changes, but was simply enforcing rules regarding soil depth that had been on the books since the early 1980s.

At Tuesday’s meeting, County Health Officer Dr. Todd Stolp told the supervisors he felt the final draft “is an excellent compromise solution” to the conflict.

In addition to the provision calling for a “qualified professional” civil engineer to review special design septic systems, the amended ordinance also:

• adds a definition for the California Plumbing Code
• authorizes septic permits to be extended up to 365 days;
• adds provisions for requiring and enforcing an operations, maintenance and monitoring program;
• clarifies a reference to depth to seasonal high groundwater;
• clarifies references to what constitutes “the base of the leach bed”;
• specifically allows filter fabric over filter material over drain lines;
• clarifies what constitutes “special design” systems; and
• adds materials to be considered in evaluating possible reduction of required soil depth below the bottom of a leaching trench or bed to groundwater.

District 3 Supervisor Teri Murrison asked the staff to report on the progress of the revisions in six months.

The Board of Supervisors’ agendas are posted on the county’s web site, www.tuolumnecounty.ca.gov/