Board weighs stricter septic rules

The Panhandle Health District Board of Health will decide next week whether to approve more stringent septic system requirements in North Idaho – a proposal that has drawn fire from some local lawmakers who fear it’s a “backdoor” attempt to limit development.

On Wednesday, state Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, suggested that the Kootenai County Commission fire the appointed, seven-member health board for potentially taking land-use planning powers from the commission.

“If you get a rogue board of health, maybe that is your responsibility,” Goedde said.

The suggestion momentarily silenced the commission meeting, attended by most North Idaho legislators and health district officials.

District Director Jeanne Bock defended the board and emphasized that the goal is to protect local waters and public health, not limit development, including large waterfront homes. The new requirements wouldn’t apply to commercial property.

The district wants to require builders to install larger septic tanks and drainfields because the current state rules are woefully inadequate, Bock said. Homeowners are hooking up systems that are too small, become overrun with wastewater and fail, she said. If a total failure doesn’t occur, overuse can cause small leaks that often go undetected. Both scenarios can result in wastewater seeping into groundwater and nearby lakes and rivers, Bock said.

The debate is left over from this year’s legislative session, in which Goedde and Black Rock developer Marshall Chesrown launched a last-minute attempt to kill the proposed new requirements. The health district agreed to spend the summer negotiating a new proposal and including more public comment.

The health board is scheduled Aug. 30 to decide whether to continue calculating the size of required septic tanks and drain fields based on the number of bedrooms in a home, or start basing the calculations on the house’s square footage. The 2008 Legislature will have the ultimate say in whether a new rule takes effect.

Under either method, Panhandle Health wants to nearly triple the minimum capacity per day a system could hold. The larger the home, the larger the required septic tank or drainfield.

Statewide, the number of bedrooms in a home determines the size of a septic system. But Panhandle Health can propose more stringent rules for the five northern counties.

“Why here?” Bock asked rhetorically. “Look outside. That’s why. Southeast Idaho and other parts of the state don’t have the rivers and lakes that we have. We don’t want them to be degraded.”

Goedde argued that the health district has no scientific proof that failed septic systems are polluting local waterways and shouldn’t enact stricter requirements.

Bock countered that the district does have proof to support doubling the minimum gallons per day requirement to 300. Dale Peck, the district’s environmental response and technology director, said the actual average daily use is closer to 400 gallons per day.

What the district can’t provide is the number of failed septic tanks in the northern counties. Bock said that’s because residents often don’t get a health district permit before they make repairs.

The health district issues about 1,200 new septic permits in North Idaho each year.

Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, questioned why this has suddenly become such a problem, especially if there is no proof of degraded water quality.

Peck said North Idaho is growing rapidly and the land that’s easy to develop is mostly gone, leaving people to build homes in more sensitive areas such as rocky, steep slopes.

Also, the definition of a bedroom has become a contentious issue with some homeowners claiming the spaces are offices or sewing rooms.

Peck added that the data also show that people are installing systems that are too small.

The Panhandle Health District has made stricter rules to protect North Idaho’s unique landscape before, and that’s what makes the board so strong, Bock said.

In the 1970s, the board limited the number of septic tanks allowed on the Rathdrum Prairie to one per five acres in an effort to protect the area’s underground aquifer and sole source of drinking water.