What is wrong with Regulations by the Water Resources Control Board
The AB885 law only requested Septic oversight yet the regulations require groundwater well testing also at additional cost.
The presumption that all septic tanks pollute groundwater has no scientific basis.
The cost of these regulations are listed as "not signfiicant" but to poorer communities, they are significant.
The requirements for new septic systems would require much more land and cost and would make some property unbuildable.
The monitoring requirements for septic systems has not been established scientifically.
The current systems are working with a 1% failure rate in most counties making the cost/benefit unjustified.
Correctly working systems near an at-risk body of water such as Lake Tahoe are all assumed to be contributing to the problem costing tens of thousands in improvements
Many septic tanks are buried so they will need to be excavated, inspected, possibly pumped out, and reburied. The $325 cost estimate is entirely too low.
The implications of the regulations are that polluted wells are caused by the closest septic tank but underground water flow is much more complex than that.
There is no stipulation on what is required to become a Licensed Professional inspector thus no way to estimate inspection fees.
There is no enforcement provisions leaving people unsure how they will be treated if they missed an inspection, cannot afford an inspection, or do not pass inspection.
The period for comments is short. The word about the regulations is just starting to spread in January and comments must be in by early February. For people to become educated on the issue and make intelligent comments, more time is needed.
One set of requirements for an area as diverse as California is unrealistic. With coastal, desert, mountains, and valleys, there are different needs in different areas.
If a problem is detected in testing, the regulations do not spell out what the approved remedies are. Can groundwater be used with filtering if it has some impurity?
