Water Wars II: Here's The Scoop on Poop
The Scoop On Poop:
Well, no water story would be complete without a sewage story to round it out, since the two issues are unavoidably intimately linked.
Once upon a time there was a serious hepatitis outbreak on a well known Canadian Gulf island, an outbreak which was then carried off island by those who were served food (this was well over a decade and a half ago) at a makeshift local restaurant. Those who ran the "no cooking on site" restaurant apparently brought home cooked meals and sold these to the seated public.
However, those who had served those same meals to the paying public had handled the food and cleaned up after the patrons without benefit of any running water and with access only to an outhouse with no actual place for them to wash their hands.
The Environmental Health investigating inspector who ultimately closed down this notorious restaurant at that time arrived to close down this operation which was in total violation of the Health Act.
He was confronted by a group of upset restaurant wannabes and their support group. The supporters brought forward a person from the midst of the gathering crowd of protesters. This fellow they said had the natural authority to act as their spokesperson, someone whom they referred as one of Hornby's "deeply respected elders".
The Elder, who shall remain nameless, pulled himself up to his full height and quietly but decidedly informed the Health Inspector that he and his fellow islanders did not "believe" in "the theory of germs".
Apparently soon thereafter Environmental Health, the precursor to VIHA or Vancouver Island Health Authority, unofficially "signed off" on actively pursuing similar Gulf Island health violation issues on this island. Wonder why?
Rumour has it that this was due in part to the the initial protest by locals at that time, those who not only voiced loud objections but insisted that such inspections constituted a draconian form of "persecution" against those whose priorities were such that they simply could not afford to be environmental or even to meet any official health standards at all.
Ironically, although the price tag back then was a mere fraction of the one now, at the rate at which the cost of being environmentally conscientious is rising, that line of reasoning, once considered absurd obfuscation, even if those at the time held intransigently to a world view not informed by science, has a point. It costs money to be conscientious.
In fact, since those simple times, it has become prohibitive to install even the most affordable choice of all, a conventional septic field, let alone to maintain one effectively enough so that it will continue to operate properly.
Consequently, VIHA's standard, while reasonable in theory, in practice creates for some a prohibition mentality and continues to serve as an effective deterrent to any real solution to existing septic violations on island.
Given the risk of being fined, or worse, some people do nothing at all other than hide their untreated sewage.
After that notorious hepatitis outbreak incident, septic pollution complaints were more often than not ignored on this island.
In fact, in reply to those who found escalating faecal coliform counts in their downhill wells and who therefore deemed themselves to be at risk from neighbouring septic leaching and contamination, the Enviro Health took to saying:
"We don't want a witch hunt".
While largely ignoring the subdivision mess already created on the island in question by a certainn realty company's earlier dealings, instead EH tightened up sewage installation standards for future subdivision approval.
Those who did nothing but try to go by the book to install a septic field were subjected to this new "spare field" strict rule. Meanwhile those who were quietly polluting their neighbours drinking water by dumping existing raw sewage into the ground uphill from or in the vicinity of same were simply left to do so.
To some this result might seem like a case of the classic "bottom up" dictatorship of the honest many by the cheating few.
Whatever else it may be, the fact remains that attaching too steep a monetary price to being or becoming domestically environmentally friendly is hardly any true incentive to find a way to live lightly upon the earth without fouling it and making one another ill.
Locally on this island there is plentiful innovative talent, an extraordinary amount of creative thinking which has been applied to legitimising progressive alternative approved septic treatment systems. All are offered choices such as peat moss sewage treatment, cultured wetlands, vegetative filtration systems, closed ozone/ultra violet re-circulating systems, and small treatment plants for condensed septic fields.
The catch, though, is that virtually every environmentally aware approach is far more expensive than a conventional field and can cost $25,000 to $35,000 to install (compared to $15,000 to $18,000 for a conventional field). And that does not take into consideration VIHA's additional requirement that one hire an independent engineer, that is if you want to do anything except install a conventional field (plus a spare field). Even then, you must already own a large enough parcel of land to accommodate the two requisite conventional fields plus leaving enough room for a house and correct distances to a well.
However, when it comes to the owners of such fields taking individual responsibility for our own shit, -er, sewage, it seems we have not come very far.
Maintenance of one's own system, whatever kind it is, remains "voluntary and optional".
Manifest democracy is filled with such counter productive contradictions.
On the one hand, VIHA is a bureaucracy which is obliged to impose on you the obligation to place your septic field a minimum of 100 ft away from anyone else's well, with a distance of 150 feet currently under future consideration, due to increased recent flooding over saturating the soil.
On the other hand, health authorities and/or neighbour each seem to have little power over whether or not those who don't care fail to take precautions and continue to pollute a neighbour's well, - so long as that particular situation pre-exists the new regulations.
Oddly, it does permit one's neighbour to install his well as close as he may so desire to your pre-existing septic field, ... just not the other way around. Anyone who already has had a well drilled thereby legally pre-empts any plans for a neighbour's septic field, if such will encroach in any way.
Of course, on 150 X 150 half acre lots there is already barely enough room for one septic field, one house and one well, let alone for meeting the new standard (which does not apply to existing subdivisions), namely nearly 6,000 sq. ft of space to provide room for two septic fields. One can only suppose that any existing older septic field which fails anywhere in one of Hornby's subdivisions must be reconstructed all over again, probably on the same spot.
A half acre lot is all of 14,400 square feet in total.
This only sounds like a lot of room, that is until you realise that in order for one's well to have potable water it must be an absolute minimum of 100 feet from all surrounding septic fields, from all ditches, all water courses, any and all wells, and all steep slopes, as well as set back from any boundary, including any of these being your own. And then there must still be left over sufficient space and requisite distances for placement of even the smallest of houses.
As mentioned, VIHA's new rules appear to be that every new subdivision development must leave enough room for not only ONE conventional septic field and the attendant land clearing (and potentially tree gobbling) which that normally involves, but for TWO fields, the second one a prerequisite separate "back up" field which must be left fallow and equidistant from the well, to serve as a fallback system when the first field eventually fails.
Less trees, more global warming.
More global warming, more flooding.
More flooding, more septic contamination.
In addition, the rule is that no driveway or structure may be situated either too near to or on top of this 6,000 sq. ft. dedicated sewage area.
This regulation often leads to landowners bulldozing forest land in order to create enough room for two required fields, one dormant.
Okay, so maybe this regulation is supposed to act as a deterrent for controlling future development.
Here is one question, though.
Exactly how would it do so?
Does prohibition stop people from drinking?
Of course not.
Well neither do rigid septic regulations stop people from covertly polluting existing subdivided land and other adjoining parcels.
Only the new applicant pays the price after applying for a permit, and only those with cash to spare can afford to hire an engineer if they want to install an enlightened approach to septic treatment.
Meanwhile, this same island's subdivisions already has more than a few instances of multiple dwellings sitting on half acre lots while exceeding the septic capacity of the original field.
That short sightedness creates an automatic doubling of density without consideration of the land's carrying capacity, while dramatically increasing water demand and sewage out fall on any given half acre lot.
And for those who argue that a Gulf Island can easily afford well planned higher density, first check how other more densely populated locations currently handle their sewage.
The Capital Regional District has plans, certainly, but so far to date still continues to pump its directly into the ocean and has done so for countless decades, well before it grew as large as it is now.
In addition, ... Catch this "22":
Conventional septic systems are known, even in official health circles, as "creeping failure systems".
Even if one flushes the system by "dosing" the exit pipes with high pressure water and/or otherwise maintains the initial exit pipes and/or pumps the two partition conventional septic tank, these still can and do eventually fail or turn anaerobic.
And even if one decides to install a composting toilet in any new island construction, one still must still install two conventional fields, one for back up, whether these are ever going to be used or not.
Yet despite acknowledgement by VIHA that there are indeed better approved treatment systems out there than the conventional one, systems which are low impact and which do not fail if maintained, conventional systems have been the only septic system field sizes permitted by VIHA, in new subdivisions on island, at any rate.
LOOSELY TRANSLATED HERE IS MY TAKE ON THE SEPTIC POLICY:
SOONER OR LATER, A CONVENTIONAL FIELD IS GOING TO FAIL.
THEREFORE, WE WANT ALL FUTURE SUBDIVISIONS TO HAVE TWO OF THEM.
FURTHER WE WILL NO LONGER APPROVE ANYTHING ELSE, EXCEPT ON EXISTING SUBDIVISIONS.
THIS LOGIC DOES NOT APPLY TO EXISTING 25 or 30 YEAR OLD SYSTEMS WHICH MAY ALREADY BE FAILING, NOR TO THOSE RESIDENTS WITHOUT A PUMP-ABLE OUTHOUSE, AND/OR WITHOUT ANY FORM OF GRAY WATER TREATMENT AND/OR EVEN WITHOUT ANY OUTHOUSE AT ALL.
Can you think of an approach to health and the environment which would more effectively cause some people (and yes, we do have them) to hide what they are currently doing, or, more to the point, not doing about their own polluting sewage?
Can you imagine such persons proactively approaching health authorities in search of reasonable solutions if such persons already live in a house without benefit of any septic system?
I wager they'd be more likely to run the other way, if only to avoid inviting in any authority which would have the power to ultimately take away the status quo of the way they are living their lives.
On the contrary, I think the current approach drives people's private sewage behaviour "underground", pardon the pun.
Something must be responsible for the discovery of sudden surges in faecal coliform count out of tourist season, discovered by those dedicated stewardship people at the bottom end of Hepatitis Hill subdivision, but who do you know who openly admits to flushing directly into the ground?
Conventional septic systems, which also treat grey water, create the largest footprint of any system, yet they are considered by VIHA to be as close as it gets to "idiot proof", - meaning even with little or no maintenance they take a long time to fail.
Not to say that they won't fail.
They definitely do.
Just continue to not ever tend to yours, nor maintain balance in, minimise impact on, or ever pump your septic tank and maybe even drop whatever tank killing agent you want into your toilet.
You will soon see how long it takes for a conventional septic tank's exit pipes to clog completely.
Visualise the conventional septic system as analogous to your heart.
Imagine those septic tank exit pipes just as if they were increasingly clogged arteries from years of a poor diet.
Arteries carry oxygenated blood out to the system.
Septic field tanks require oxygen too, to keep cooking and carry on.
If they turn anaerobic (having to do with or caused by anaerobes or by the absence of free oxygen) they stop working.
A similar analogy holds true for the heart.
Supposedly, conventional fields are hard to harm and theoretically are designed to last for 30 years.
However, no one seems to be able to confirm if this holds true when they are actively abused or ignorantly neglected.
The conventional approach to sewage disposal is deemed the only choice approved by the "Health Authority", unless, as mentioned, a privately hired engineer becomes involved in the process.
So, to compound the dilemma of making personal environmental choices affordable, while they do have their place, so far the conventional creeping failure system is also far and away the most affordable, as well as being the only one (make that two) system directly approved by VIHA in that specific and until very recently notoriously backward location, at least.
In addition, even if anyone wants to be environmentally conscientious, and can afford the mandatory requirement to privately hire an engineer who will approve an alternative system, you STILL first must get your land approved for two traditional large septic fields anyway!
Only then, I gather, will VIHA step back out of the issue and permit the stamp of approval by another authority.
So, not only do enlightened alternative systems cost far more, but on top of that one must be very flush in order to be environmental.
Welcome to Catch 22, the circular logic on which most bureaucracy runs.
Regards.
Well, no water story would be complete without a sewage story to round it out, since the two issues are unavoidably intimately linked.
Once upon a time there was a serious hepatitis outbreak on a well known Canadian Gulf island, an outbreak which was then carried off island by those who were served food (this was well over a decade and a half ago) at a makeshift local restaurant. Those who ran the "no cooking on site" restaurant apparently brought home cooked meals and sold these to the seated public.
However, those who had served those same meals to the paying public had handled the food and cleaned up after the patrons without benefit of any running water and with access only to an outhouse with no actual place for them to wash their hands.
The Environmental Health investigating inspector who ultimately closed down this notorious restaurant at that time arrived to close down this operation which was in total violation of the Health Act.
He was confronted by a group of upset restaurant wannabes and their support group. The supporters brought forward a person from the midst of the gathering crowd of protesters. This fellow they said had the natural authority to act as their spokesperson, someone whom they referred as one of Hornby's "deeply respected elders".
The Elder, who shall remain nameless, pulled himself up to his full height and quietly but decidedly informed the Health Inspector that he and his fellow islanders did not "believe" in "the theory of germs".
Apparently soon thereafter Environmental Health, the precursor to VIHA or Vancouver Island Health Authority, unofficially "signed off" on actively pursuing similar Gulf Island health violation issues on this island. Wonder why?
Rumour has it that this was due in part to the the initial protest by locals at that time, those who not only voiced loud objections but insisted that such inspections constituted a draconian form of "persecution" against those whose priorities were such that they simply could not afford to be environmental or even to meet any official health standards at all.
Ironically, although the price tag back then was a mere fraction of the one now, at the rate at which the cost of being environmentally conscientious is rising, that line of reasoning, once considered absurd obfuscation, even if those at the time held intransigently to a world view not informed by science, has a point. It costs money to be conscientious.
In fact, since those simple times, it has become prohibitive to install even the most affordable choice of all, a conventional septic field, let alone to maintain one effectively enough so that it will continue to operate properly.
Consequently, VIHA's standard, while reasonable in theory, in practice creates for some a prohibition mentality and continues to serve as an effective deterrent to any real solution to existing septic violations on island.
Given the risk of being fined, or worse, some people do nothing at all other than hide their untreated sewage.
After that notorious hepatitis outbreak incident, septic pollution complaints were more often than not ignored on this island.
In fact, in reply to those who found escalating faecal coliform counts in their downhill wells and who therefore deemed themselves to be at risk from neighbouring septic leaching and contamination, the Enviro Health took to saying:
"We don't want a witch hunt".
While largely ignoring the subdivision mess already created on the island in question by a certainn realty company's earlier dealings, instead EH tightened up sewage installation standards for future subdivision approval.
Those who did nothing but try to go by the book to install a septic field were subjected to this new "spare field" strict rule. Meanwhile those who were quietly polluting their neighbours drinking water by dumping existing raw sewage into the ground uphill from or in the vicinity of same were simply left to do so.
To some this result might seem like a case of the classic "bottom up" dictatorship of the honest many by the cheating few.
Whatever else it may be, the fact remains that attaching too steep a monetary price to being or becoming domestically environmentally friendly is hardly any true incentive to find a way to live lightly upon the earth without fouling it and making one another ill.
Locally on this island there is plentiful innovative talent, an extraordinary amount of creative thinking which has been applied to legitimising progressive alternative approved septic treatment systems. All are offered choices such as peat moss sewage treatment, cultured wetlands, vegetative filtration systems, closed ozone/ultra violet re-circulating systems, and small treatment plants for condensed septic fields.
The catch, though, is that virtually every environmentally aware approach is far more expensive than a conventional field and can cost $25,000 to $35,000 to install (compared to $15,000 to $18,000 for a conventional field). And that does not take into consideration VIHA's additional requirement that one hire an independent engineer, that is if you want to do anything except install a conventional field (plus a spare field). Even then, you must already own a large enough parcel of land to accommodate the two requisite conventional fields plus leaving enough room for a house and correct distances to a well.
However, when it comes to the owners of such fields taking individual responsibility for our own shit, -er, sewage, it seems we have not come very far.
Maintenance of one's own system, whatever kind it is, remains "voluntary and optional".
Manifest democracy is filled with such counter productive contradictions.
On the one hand, VIHA is a bureaucracy which is obliged to impose on you the obligation to place your septic field a minimum of 100 ft away from anyone else's well, with a distance of 150 feet currently under future consideration, due to increased recent flooding over saturating the soil.
On the other hand, health authorities and/or neighbour each seem to have little power over whether or not those who don't care fail to take precautions and continue to pollute a neighbour's well, - so long as that particular situation pre-exists the new regulations.
Oddly, it does permit one's neighbour to install his well as close as he may so desire to your pre-existing septic field, ... just not the other way around. Anyone who already has had a well drilled thereby legally pre-empts any plans for a neighbour's septic field, if such will encroach in any way.
Of course, on 150 X 150 half acre lots there is already barely enough room for one septic field, one house and one well, let alone for meeting the new standard (which does not apply to existing subdivisions), namely nearly 6,000 sq. ft of space to provide room for two septic fields. One can only suppose that any existing older septic field which fails anywhere in one of Hornby's subdivisions must be reconstructed all over again, probably on the same spot.
A half acre lot is all of 14,400 square feet in total.
This only sounds like a lot of room, that is until you realise that in order for one's well to have potable water it must be an absolute minimum of 100 feet from all surrounding septic fields, from all ditches, all water courses, any and all wells, and all steep slopes, as well as set back from any boundary, including any of these being your own. And then there must still be left over sufficient space and requisite distances for placement of even the smallest of houses.
As mentioned, VIHA's new rules appear to be that every new subdivision development must leave enough room for not only ONE conventional septic field and the attendant land clearing (and potentially tree gobbling) which that normally involves, but for TWO fields, the second one a prerequisite separate "back up" field which must be left fallow and equidistant from the well, to serve as a fallback system when the first field eventually fails.
Less trees, more global warming.
More global warming, more flooding.
More flooding, more septic contamination.
In addition, the rule is that no driveway or structure may be situated either too near to or on top of this 6,000 sq. ft. dedicated sewage area.
This regulation often leads to landowners bulldozing forest land in order to create enough room for two required fields, one dormant.
Okay, so maybe this regulation is supposed to act as a deterrent for controlling future development.
Here is one question, though.
Exactly how would it do so?
Does prohibition stop people from drinking?
Of course not.
Well neither do rigid septic regulations stop people from covertly polluting existing subdivided land and other adjoining parcels.
Only the new applicant pays the price after applying for a permit, and only those with cash to spare can afford to hire an engineer if they want to install an enlightened approach to septic treatment.
Meanwhile, this same island's subdivisions already has more than a few instances of multiple dwellings sitting on half acre lots while exceeding the septic capacity of the original field.
That short sightedness creates an automatic doubling of density without consideration of the land's carrying capacity, while dramatically increasing water demand and sewage out fall on any given half acre lot.
And for those who argue that a Gulf Island can easily afford well planned higher density, first check how other more densely populated locations currently handle their sewage.
The Capital Regional District has plans, certainly, but so far to date still continues to pump its directly into the ocean and has done so for countless decades, well before it grew as large as it is now.
In addition, ... Catch this "22":
Conventional septic systems are known, even in official health circles, as "creeping failure systems".
Even if one flushes the system by "dosing" the exit pipes with high pressure water and/or otherwise maintains the initial exit pipes and/or pumps the two partition conventional septic tank, these still can and do eventually fail or turn anaerobic.
And even if one decides to install a composting toilet in any new island construction, one still must still install two conventional fields, one for back up, whether these are ever going to be used or not.
Yet despite acknowledgement by VIHA that there are indeed better approved treatment systems out there than the conventional one, systems which are low impact and which do not fail if maintained, conventional systems have been the only septic system field sizes permitted by VIHA, in new subdivisions on island, at any rate.
LOOSELY TRANSLATED HERE IS MY TAKE ON THE SEPTIC POLICY:
SOONER OR LATER, A CONVENTIONAL FIELD IS GOING TO FAIL.
THEREFORE, WE WANT ALL FUTURE SUBDIVISIONS TO HAVE TWO OF THEM.
FURTHER WE WILL NO LONGER APPROVE ANYTHING ELSE, EXCEPT ON EXISTING SUBDIVISIONS.
THIS LOGIC DOES NOT APPLY TO EXISTING 25 or 30 YEAR OLD SYSTEMS WHICH MAY ALREADY BE FAILING, NOR TO THOSE RESIDENTS WITHOUT A PUMP-ABLE OUTHOUSE, AND/OR WITHOUT ANY FORM OF GRAY WATER TREATMENT AND/OR EVEN WITHOUT ANY OUTHOUSE AT ALL.
Can you think of an approach to health and the environment which would more effectively cause some people (and yes, we do have them) to hide what they are currently doing, or, more to the point, not doing about their own polluting sewage?
Can you imagine such persons proactively approaching health authorities in search of reasonable solutions if such persons already live in a house without benefit of any septic system?
I wager they'd be more likely to run the other way, if only to avoid inviting in any authority which would have the power to ultimately take away the status quo of the way they are living their lives.
On the contrary, I think the current approach drives people's private sewage behaviour "underground", pardon the pun.
Something must be responsible for the discovery of sudden surges in faecal coliform count out of tourist season, discovered by those dedicated stewardship people at the bottom end of Hepatitis Hill subdivision, but who do you know who openly admits to flushing directly into the ground?
Conventional septic systems, which also treat grey water, create the largest footprint of any system, yet they are considered by VIHA to be as close as it gets to "idiot proof", - meaning even with little or no maintenance they take a long time to fail.
Not to say that they won't fail.
They definitely do.
Just continue to not ever tend to yours, nor maintain balance in, minimise impact on, or ever pump your septic tank and maybe even drop whatever tank killing agent you want into your toilet.
You will soon see how long it takes for a conventional septic tank's exit pipes to clog completely.
Visualise the conventional septic system as analogous to your heart.
Imagine those septic tank exit pipes just as if they were increasingly clogged arteries from years of a poor diet.
Arteries carry oxygenated blood out to the system.
Septic field tanks require oxygen too, to keep cooking and carry on.
If they turn anaerobic (having to do with or caused by anaerobes or by the absence of free oxygen) they stop working.
A similar analogy holds true for the heart.
Supposedly, conventional fields are hard to harm and theoretically are designed to last for 30 years.
However, no one seems to be able to confirm if this holds true when they are actively abused or ignorantly neglected.
The conventional approach to sewage disposal is deemed the only choice approved by the "Health Authority", unless, as mentioned, a privately hired engineer becomes involved in the process.
So, to compound the dilemma of making personal environmental choices affordable, while they do have their place, so far the conventional creeping failure system is also far and away the most affordable, as well as being the only one (make that two) system directly approved by VIHA in that specific and until very recently notoriously backward location, at least.
In addition, even if anyone wants to be environmentally conscientious, and can afford the mandatory requirement to privately hire an engineer who will approve an alternative system, you STILL first must get your land approved for two traditional large septic fields anyway!
Only then, I gather, will VIHA step back out of the issue and permit the stamp of approval by another authority.
So, not only do enlightened alternative systems cost far more, but on top of that one must be very flush in order to be environmental.
Welcome to Catch 22, the circular logic on which most bureaucracy runs.
Regards.
posted by Moxie Molly at 1:30 pm
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