Senate opposes septic change
BOISE – A last-ditch effort by homeowners and builders to stop stricter septic system rules for North Idaho gained approval by the full Senate Tuesday.
The measure to overturn the new Panhandle Health District rules, Senate Concurrent Resolution 121, requires endorsement by the House and governor before the session ends – potentially as early as Friday. If passed, it will throw out regulations requiring bigger drain fields and septic tanks for some large homes.
The health district formulated the rules to protect regional waterways from leaking, overloaded systems. Opponents, however, argue that the regulations will hinder new construction and prevent expansion of existing homes, especially on expensive lakefront property.
Both sides say they are willing to discard the rules for now and seek compromises.
SCR 121, sponsored by Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, is scheduled for a hearing in a House committee this morning.
The state calculates septic system requirements using the number of bedrooms in a home.
Under the new regulations, the health district could base such calculations on a home’s square footage, requiring bigger systems for homes 2,600 square feet and larger.
In 2005, the average new, single-family home measured 2,434 square feet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
While health district officials say the rules target systems for enormous “trophy homes” that may be overloaded by visitors, critics contend that the square footage requirements are unrealistic.
Debate Tuesday focused largely on the legislative propriety – not the science – of the rules. Some lawmakers criticized the last-minute nature of the legislation.
“An 11th-hour fix, to me, is always a bad fix,” Sen. Charles Coiner, R-Twin Falls, told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
But Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Cocolalla, said it’s “blatantly unfair” to make North Idaho’s rules more severe than those elsewhere in the state.
Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, said North Idaho is undergoing a construction slowdown, making this an appropriate time to formulate septic system rules.
“Don’t tell us that you know better than us what’s best for us,” Hammond, a former Post Falls mayor, told lawmakers.
Senators voted 23-8 in favor of the measure.
Panhandle Health will return next session with a rule that satisfies everyone, Director Jeanne Bock wrote in a Monday letter to lawmakers.
Chas Ariss, an environmental engineer with Centra Consulting Inc. and a former manager for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said failed septic systems can contaminate waterways with nutrients, causing algae blooms and health issues for swimmers.
But instead of a square footage calculation, Ariss suggested that officials consider assessing the number of plumbing fixtures in a home – an idea Broadsword also proposed.
Although the Coeur d’Alene Lakeshore Property Owners Association and the North Idaho Building Contractors Association have lobbied against the rules, some North Idaho residents support tighter standards.
In a letter to lawmakers Monday, former Kootenai County Planning Commission member Jan Scharnweber said the health district is being proactive to “address a long existing problem before it becomes critical – from an environmental standpoint and before other regulatory agencies decide to step in.”
Barry Rosenberg, executive director of the conservation group Kootenai Environmental Alliance, said adding more nutrients to Lake Coeur d’Alene through septic systems could contribute to the spread of heavy metals now on the lake bottom.
“I think it’s very short-sighted if the Legislature overturns these proposed rules by Panhandle Health,” he said. “You can’t be too careful with protecting one of the most valuable resources here in Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County.”