[Vision2020] Deal Trims Some Rules On Sewage

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (March 19, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

---------------------------------------------------

Deal trims some rules on sewage
Earlier proposal deemed too harsh
Betsy Z. Russell The Spokesman-Review

BOISE – A North Idaho lawmaker’s proposal to eliminate all of the
Panhandle Health District’s sewage rules – including those that protect
the aquifer that provides the Inland Northwest’s drinking water – was cut
way back Thursday, but still will allow greater expansion of homes on
outdated sewer systems on North Idaho lakes.

“This was a compromise that we agreed to,” said Dale Peck, environmental
response and technology director for Panhandle Health. “It’s certainly a
much better alternative than moving HB 667 forward in its original form.”

State Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, who proposed the bill, told a
House committee Thursday that he recognized it “would probably have done
more damage than it could’ve done good.”

Among the rules his original bill would have eliminated: The requirement
that homes built over the Spokane-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer either be on
municipal sewer systems, or have five acres of land to accommodate a
septic system.

Mike Kane, lobbyist for Idaho’s seven health districts, said, “We’re
turning this into a surgical strike instead of an H-bomb.”

Instead of eliminating all of the district’s sewage and water-quality
rules, the bill would instead eliminate just two specific Panhandle Health
rules: One that limits expansion of homes on outdated, nonconforming
sewage systems to 10 percent of their current square footage; and another
that in some cases requires dual drainfields for community sewer systems.
Other changes would conform the district’s appeal processes to those
followed by other Idaho health districts.

The 10 percent rule has been controversial; earlier this year, a Moscow,
Idaho, senator proposed eliminating it on behalf of a Pullman resident who
replaced her small Lake Coeur d’Alene cabin with a large home, and then
couldn’t get an occupancy permit. Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, didn’t
proceed with that bill after the district pledged to try to increase
flexibility under the rule.

Under Anderson’s amended bill, the rule would be eliminated at the close
of this year’s Idaho legislative session, which could be as soon as a week
from Friday. The district then would revert to an older state rule,
allowing expansions of any size as long as no additional bedrooms are
added.

“It will be a change, but it will have us handling things similarly to how
they’re done elsewhere in the state,” Peck said. He said the changes in
the amended bill should have “a very limited effect on the aquifer.”

State Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, has been fighting with the health
district for two years over a proposed remodel and expansion of his home
on the Spokane River, for which the district denied a permit because of
the 10 percent rule. Nonini said that last Friday – after he angrily
confronted district officials at a public meeting earlier in the week – he
got a letter from the district saying his home actually isn’t subject to
that rule, and he can proceed with his expansion project.

Nonini said he’s angry over his experience and has been told he has a good
case to sue. “What about all the other people that aren’t legislators?” he
said. He said he and his wife “spent a few thousand dollars on attorneys
and engineers to see if we could appease the health district – now it
turns out we didn’t have to do that.”

Terry Harris, executive director of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance in
Coeur d’Alene, said, “I think procedurally this is no way to legislate
complicated problems. 
 I do think the Panhandle Health sewage rules need
an overhaul, but probably not the overhaul that these legislators have in
mind. I think they ought to be strengthened and enforced a little better.”

Anderson, a third-term Republican, said he doesn’t want to endanger water
quality; he’s the former longtime chairman of the Outlet Sewer District on
Priest Lake. “You know what happens when rules become so restrictive that
people start cheating?” he said. “That’s my concern.”

----------------

House Bill 667

"Notwithstanding the foregoing or any other provision of law, all rules of
public health districts relating to subsurface sewage systems, waste-water
treatment, sewage systems and water quality shall be null, void and of no
force and effect at the conclusion of the first regular session of the
sixty-first
Idaho legislature. Thereafter public health districts shall have the
approval of the board of environmental quality to promulgate rules
relating to subsurface sewage systems, waste-water treatment, sewage
systems and water quality and such rules must be approved by adoption of a
concurrent resolution by both houses of the legislature or they shall
expire at the conclusion of a regular session of the legislature. It is
the intent of the legislature that standards and rules relating to
subsurface sewage systems, waste-water treatment, sewage systems and water
quality be uniform statewide."

http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2010/H0667.pdf

----------------

Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, said Thursday that legislation he
proposed to do away with sewage rules likely would have done more harm
than good.

http://tinyurl.com/Rep-Eric-Anderson

---------------------------------------------------

So, you think the water tastes bad now.

Just wait until "the conclusion of the first regular session of the
sixty-first Idaho legislature".

Seeya round town, Moscow (collecting water for the tougher days ahead).

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown