Septic Tank Re-Use News!

We met with a very informative lateral contractor Wednesday as we are now in our "phase" to be hooked up. We are not among those able bodied and talented enough to dig our own trench, so we are having this work done for us. Sad to say, we don't even know where the pipe is that comes out of the house. The kitchen is on one side of the house and the bathrooms are on the other. They are as far apart as it is possible to be. Where is that pipe—in the middle? Another mystery that we will leave to the professionals to solve!

I will give some background on what I have have heard about saving your septic tank prior to this meeting and then I'll report what I heard on that topic from the lateral contractor. It isn't at all what I expected to hear.

The thrust from the "Enviro" people and the County has been to repurpose your septic tank when possible. Use it to direct rainwater off the roof, into a downspout and into ground via your tank - if holes are punched the bottom or if no holes, via your leach field. Or save it for later, just clean and seal. They have also said that is not always possible to save if the tank is in some strange place or is damaged. (Yes, there have been, in the lateral diggings, actual redwood septic tanks found. These will NOT be suitable for re-purposing!) All the details can be found in this online booklet, and there are a lot of details:
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/WC+Septic+System+Decommissioning+and+Reuse+Plan.pdf

Most tanks however, are reinforced concrete tanks of varying ages. Sewer followers, do you remember back in the day when Ripley first surfaced as a possible Step/Steg contractor for the entire PZ? He recommended that ALL tanks be replaced! (100%!!!) And then of course, as he tried to make the project cheaper and cheaper, that percentage went down and down and down. But I digress. Concrete tanks last on average 25-30 years. The last houses in the PZ part of town were built in 1987, making the youngest ORIGINAL tanks from that era 29 years old! So....this is where the information that I had never heard before comes in.

A lot of tanks are on their last legs. Water will rust the steel reinforcement of your concrete tank. Sulfuric acid and sewer gas will degrade the concrete. Concrete tanks as young as 5 years old can begin to crumble. A man was walking in his yard a few blocks from my house stepped on top of the tank and FELL IN, the top gave way. The contractor said on the repurposing, that it wasn't a question of IF the lid will cave, but WHEN it will cave. The permit you have for your tank is no longer the same as it is no longer a septic tank, just a tank to hold water and that the County will not inspect these for safety or compliance of anything. The agreement on decommissioning the tank is between you and the contractor, and he or she will be responsible. So now I see what the contractor reluctance has been to re-purpose the tank and the preference is to fill it with approved material. There is then no danger of your falling into the tank if the thing decomposes.

Because the legality of letting a homeowner get use of any of the recycled water from the plant is tied up in some state level "policy discussion," unchanging that law could take years. I have no faith in any time soon being able to fill our septic tank with that recycled water to keep things alive by watering our plants much as the septic tank does now, or by putting a pump down there to use that water via electrical pumping means. Our downspout goes into a pipe in the ground already to some unknown leach field.

If you do not repurpose, legally, the contractor is supposed to bring in a compactor and compact the material placed into the tank. The tank top will be cut off and will fall into the bottom - the top is to be left open. If the bottom is good and not punched with holes, the tank will hold moisture in the sandy stuff in there (when it rains.....OK, IF it rains....), and eventually tree roots will find their way in. I really don't want my lemon tree that I have never watered to croak, so I will have to water it for a few years to keep it going until it finds that pot of moist sand to quench its thirst. It has been sucking up septage I guess, as I sure don't water it. Lots of lemons year 'round too. Yes I eat them. I'm not sure what gets transmitted to lemons via transpiration, but far I have not come down with:

• Campylobacteriosis
• Giardia
• Solmonella
• Cryptosporidium
• E. Coli
• Hepatitis A
• Shigella

Here is a fun link I forgot to find on the County's lateral page to see your tank location. We have two! I wonder what that means?

http://gis.slocounty.ca.gov/Html5Viewer2_5_1/Index.html?configBase=/Geocortex/Essentials/REST/sites/PW_Public/viewers/PW_Viewer/virtualdirectory/Resources/Config/Default&layerTheme=5&Extent=-13454203.629,4205219.1621,-13449015.4657,4209289.4339

Phase 2 Lateral Workshop!

Off of the County's website:

"June 6, 2016: A sewer lateral connection workshop for property owners in the Phase 2 connection area will be held on June 6, 2016 at the South Bay Community Center.  There will be 2 sessions held: 4:30 pm and 6:00 pm."

Board Of Supes, April 12, 2016 - Laterals

Coming up next week on the BOS agenda:

                                                   Consent Agenda - Public Works Items:

0. 6. Request to approve a sole source agreement for professional environmental consulting services with Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., for an amount not to exceed $189,591 for archaeological services for the Los Osos Wastewater Laterals Connection. District 2. 
   

Trenching in Cuesta-by-the-Sea!

Facebook peeps, take a look at great photos of lateral trench work being done!

https://www.facebook.com/pandora.nashkarner?fref=ts

New Brochure!

Mine came in the mail, but you can also see it at this link:
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/20160322+Sewer+Lateral+Brochure.pdf

You can find your phase for lateral connection inside! There is general info on septic tank re-use, water conservation, project costs and the contact information for financial assistance.

Need Lateral Help?

I can't resist linking this brand new website on here as it offers services for everything lateral all in one place, from estimates, contractors, permits, repairs (and improvements), tank decommissioning, financing, and tank repurposing! Have a look!

http://thelocalconnection805.com

Lateralpalooza!!

Saturday's latest sewerfest was a HUGE success! 

It was squashingly well attended at all three sessions (SRO—actually, people were sitting on the floor up front), and apart from a couple of Debbie Downers wearing scowls, the mood was one of attention and curiosity. 

The program consisted of speakers (Second District Supervisor Bruce Gibson, Project Manager John Waddell, County Presenter Mladen Bandov); a Powerpoint; various county tables around the room with information (all of which is on a link off of the County's sewer website); Central Coast Green Build's table with booklets; and the largest attraction outside on the quad, was some of the vendors who will be offering their services at "lateral time." (The list of vendors is off the link above.) Yes, food, drink and munchies were served.

March 28 is the target date to start hooking up. Some of us in the last section won't hook up for a year plus. In any case, the County will send you a post card several weeks in advance, and at that point, you have six months to get the lateral trench dug and to hook up.

The advice was: Talk to the contractors and get several bids. What they do is: get the permits; dig the trench; install the latreral from the house to the stub-out (that plastic capped thing with a wire sticking out in your yard); have the inspection done by the County on the work. You will be able to decommission the tank by abandoning it, which is crushing in the lid and filling the tank with gravel or sand OR removing it. OR you have the option to repurpose it. Repurposing consists of disinfecting it with household bleach and having it inspected. Then you can use it for stormwater infiltration, rainwater harvesting (this needs a pump either inside or outside the tank) or treat the graywater and reuse it indoors for toilet flushing or other uses. Work with a professional to do these things.

Now, ANYONE can go through the training class and be certified to work under the County permit, but exactly what that entails was not delineated. Contact the County! The number/E-mail on their website for questions (any questions) is this:

Contact the County at (805) 788-2759 or rheaslet@co.slo.ca.us with comments or questions.

Check the SLOgreenbuild website for books and the decommissioning and reuse plan.

There WILL be more workshops; and in late March, weekly office hours will begin at the 10th Street office.

Rebates are still available! Costs were given for the lateral installation between $2,000 to $4,000 for easy installations, and up to $10,000 for the tough ones (like the tank is in your backyard). Low income financial assistance is available for: lateral connections; service charge discounts; and there is also a property tax deferral program if you qualify. See the County's website! Call if you have questions!

The charges that we have been seeing on our tax bills for the sewer project, around $700 a year, will be going up to around $2,000 year once the plant is running. Most homes will be hooked up this year.

We will never quite be able to mindlessly flush and forget after what we have been through, but at least the contamination will stop and the water will go to a better use than leaching out, 1,000,000 gallons a day, into the bay. Yee-haaa!

Postcard For Lateral Meeting!

Here is what arrived in the mail at my house on Saturday, January 16! Remember to attend one of the three workshops to get the scoopage on what to do to connect your house to the sewer pipe (lateral) in the street! See you there!!

The Lowdown On Laterals!

Mark your calendars!! 

The County is doing an Open House on the sewer lateral connections on 

January 23, 2015. 

Read about it under this header off of the link below:

Recent News and Events

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/PW/LOWWP.htm

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

The November 2015 Baseline Groundwater Quality Report is available now too. Monitoring the levels of chemicals in our water is part of the Waste Discharge Permit issued by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board for the sewer project.

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/Baseline+Groundwater+Quality+Report+Dec+2015.pdf

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

As to the airing of grievances, Los Osos famously does it at every public meeting. Even so,

Happy Festivus to one and all!!

The Drone Movie Was Awesome!

If you missed the Sewer Forum Wednesday, you missed a lot. Which other sewer plant under construction gets its own movie shot from a drone? Seriously, it really gave you an idea of how this project was progressing, and it gave it to you with a musical score cool enough to download off iTunes!* 

Here's what the room looked like (click images for a larger view):

It was so jammed, the standing room was squished at the 4:00 p.m. session. It was almost full at the 6:00 p.m. session. The parking lot was full, the street parking was full, and the parking at the end of the playing field was full and sprung a leak from a broken water line. People were asked to move their cars, but fortunately, that was at the end of the 4:00 p.m. session. 

The audience was fairly calm, just few grumblings and one booming yell from a man at the beginning of the 6:00 p.m. session demanding to get the show going, it was 6:06 p.m. and a tad late starting.

OK, here was the program—sorry for the creases, but I was too lazy to Photoshop them out, it got squished in my notebook, I was writing and standing at the back of the room.

We met our new Public Works Director Wade Horton for the first time at the program introduction. He's been on the job only two months and of course missed all the fun sewer events starting in 2007. I suspect that he is glad to have missed them....or maybe he took the job having heard no stories? No, that is not possible, they even know who we are in Washington, D.C.. I wish him all the best!

The presenters were: Bruce Gibson, District 2 Supervisor, PW Director Wade Horton, Project Manager John Waddell, PE Robert Ruiz, and Kate Ballentyne, Environmental Resources Specialist (the Snail Lady, more below).

As the County will post a lot of this stuff I will only hit the highlights. If you want to go on the second tour of the new plant, you will need to sign up to be able to attend. They will post this soon, probably on the wastewater Web page, with a number to call. Save the date, Tuesday, March 31, 5:00-6:00 p.m..

The hook-ups will begin a year from now and it will be done in phases over a year's time. There was a nifty map where you could find your street and see what group that you would be in, there were three. You will get a notice in the mail and then you will have 6 months to hook up, which means all your plumbing stuff needs to be up to the project's specific requirements and you will have to, or you will have to find a contractor to, dig your trench, hook up the house pipe to the pipe coming from the street, clean out your tank, etc..

There will be a list posted by the County of qualified contractors to call closer to the hook up date. Call many, there will be a lot of competition, so find the best price. These contractors will have special environmental training to work in Los Osos and will be licensed and bonded. A permit will be required. Contractors can do an e-permit online, but owners, called owner/builders, will have to go to the Planning Department counter in person with some sort of drawing of what you intend to do and your work will be inspected. There is a fee (yet to be determined) to get the permit, but this cost might be absorbed by the project, so stay tuned on that, it will be up to the Supes.

Another look-up of your property was to see if they had found Morro Shoulderband snails on your property. They do have a list, by address. Only the Shoulderband Snail is on the Endangered Species list. If you are on that list, and 390 of you are, prior to trenching, you will be visited, free of charge, by the super nice Snail Lady to remove them for you. Sadly, many might have been already squished, which is common for with anyone with a garden. They are kind of cute actually (I have seen them at Sweet Springs, they are shaped in a sort of flat spiral like a cinnamon roll), and they DO NOT EAT your plants even! (The Chorro Shoulderband Snail did not have any examples on this display.)

They also know who has cultural artifacts on their properties and these homes will be visited by an archeologist, free of charge, to deal with those.

Here are some of the cards that they had on easels around the room which were also on the slides in the presentation:

The average cost on the laterals and decommissioning is figured to be $3,000. Those needing a grinder pump, about 200 of you, and you probably already know who you are, you got a letter about this a year ago, sorry, I forgot to write down the average cost on this, but prices will range between $3,000 - $9,000.

There was a nifty SLO Green Build handout that showed you some ideas on what to do with your septic tank after you have hooked up. There will be several workshops starting this year and into next year explaining how to do this. LOCAC will get a presentation as will the Supes.

Streets will be resurfaced! Five miles of overlay on some and micro surfacing on almost all the rest, starting in June or July, 2015!

The monthly project cost is the same as the last time we heard about this—$165 for the average home. The price for mobile homes went down though. 

There is a LOT of financial help upcoming for low-income people, and it is just too complex to enumerate here. What to do will be posted on the sewer Website in the future. There will be individual counseling and guidance with figuring out if you qualify to filling out the paperwork.

Also, the County is seeking to reduce the interest rate on one of the loans, we will be notified if that happens.

Next big overview meeting, around a year from now.

(I missed getting a large cookie which was being served out of oversized boxes at the entrance, so thanks for saving me from the extra calories whoever all of you are!)

*When I get the name of the piece, I will post it!

Lazy Sewer Reporting

Yes, this should have been posted last Friday. Oh well. Here it is now:

I attended LOCAC on Thursday, July 24, 2014. Sewer stuff was discussed when questions were asked of our District 2 Supervisor, Bruce Gibson. (Q and As below are paraphrased.)

Question: Has there been any movement on converting our septics to cisterns for rain water?

Supe BG: It is a permitting issue. County Planner Kerry Brown may work on consolidating the permitting process to one permit and one inspection. The County will try to make it as low cost as possible, maybe even free. Planning and Public Works are in discussion on this right now.

Question: Some people have already put in their laterals but they are not connected. What happens next?

Supe BG: It will need to be videoed. We are discouraging the "over achievers" on doing this now. There will be a massive outreach and a place to drop in to talk about what to do, or you can come to South Bay Community Center weekly or bi-weekly.

Part of Mr. Gibson's report to LOCAC was that ARB has substantially completed their part of the trenching. Their punch list is now under 50. Public Works, in addition to finalizing the remedial treatment for the battered streets, says the actual work will wait until the warranty period on the trench work has expired. That way, if any problems with the trench work arise, they will be under ARB's warranty and ARB will need to fix those problems. The treatment plant is under construction and no issues have arisen there (according to John Waddell, Project Manager).

Also mentioned was financing for laterals. It will likely be a low-interest loan or grants. There are three or four different programs being looked at for an income-tested basis. This might start mid-2015.

There was an interesting discussion on pot-growing here in Los Osos, but that was not sewer-related, so won't be reported here. (You should have been there!)

What I Found Out

I went to the project office today at 2025 Tenth Street to find out about my lateral and what could be done about faucets that have no visible means of modification to reach the targeted goals of 1.5 gallons per minute or less. (I had gone online and found that my unmodifiable kitchen faucet for instance could put out 2.5 gpm, yikes!)

I met Michelle Houser who is the Community Liaison and who is really someone interested in getting you to the right place for answers. Very helpful! (Don't be bashful, she will put you at ease immediately!)

Michelle told me that I will need to get a pre-inspection on my faucets and the contact person to schedule that is Ray Dienzo at 788-6633. He is the Water Conservation Manager. That number will get you to a message service and he will call back as soon as humanly possible, but it might take two days, the office has been swamped lately.

Next person I needed to see was the "lateral guy," and I don't know if the same person fills that role every day that the office is open or not, but I met with Tim Cate at the next desk over who also was really helpful and perfectly patient with my endless questions. I had a whole-neighborhood lateral print-out I had made from a pdf file that had been sent to me ages ago by a Public Works guy and it really didn't mean much to me. I needed a translator!

Apparently mine was the same file from the old project and it was in Tim's big book of lateral plans. I have heard other parts of town had some lateral changes, so if you are concerned where your lateral actually is, do visit the Tenth Street office and get the guided tour.

Tim brought up my house on Google Earth Street View so he was able to show me the side of my property where the lateral will go. Many of us have ignored where the right of way actually is and filled in that big blank spot with flowers (OK, some weeds too) and in my case a bear statue. I will need to plan for eight feet to be cleared around where the lateral will go in that right of way. I can be less wide than eight feet where I pick up the line past the County-easement part on my property, I intend to hire a person to hand dig it the rest of the way to save as many plants as I can. Rotator cuff surgery is my excuse not to dig it myself!

Here is something else I learned. The County won't be allowed to dig up any trees. So if a tree has grown on top of the path to your lateral, you might want to find out how to handle that. You might need a re-route of your lateral, and as I said yesterday, time is almost up to make those changes. I see trees cut down all the time around here, but have no idea if the proper procedure was followed or not. I found this general ordinance online for us in the Coastal Zone,

"Coastal:

No tree over 8” in diameter at 4’ from the ground may be removed or killed unless a permit is first issued.   A permit can only be issued if the tree meets certain criteria.   If you feel you have a hazardous tree, or one that is damaging utilities or your house, please call us for an inspection."
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/planning/Ordinance_Compliance_and_Enforcement/Code_Enforcement_Frequently_Asked_Questions.htm

Don't be caught flat-footed when lateral time comes to your house!

Expect to see a stake placed in your yard prior to construction on your street. This is where your lateral will go. Don't forget to visit the interactive map to see the estimated time that construction will begin on your street. Be sure to check back frequently as due to the nature of construction, especially in this archeologically sensitive area, your time may have shifted. Here is the link, and click on as close as possible to where your house actually is to get an accurate reading!

https://gisapps.hdrprojects.com/LosOsos/index.html

I lucked out on a slowdown in the pre-inspection office, I got a call back from Ray less than two hours later! My appointment is for Friday at 1:00 - I'll report how that went!