EDITOR - NOWRA ONSITE JOURNAL

EDITOR NOWRA ONSITE JOURNAL …….

Greetings:

I am writing in response to an article in the Summer 2006, issue, authored by David Casaletto … which he entitled ….”The ball is in our court” …

As I scanned page 7 upon which his article appeared two bold and underlined words immediately caught my attention – adequately managed – which I feel bespeaks to the heart of the issues within the decentralized industry nation wide.

Adequately managed is the end result of a thoughtfully proposed and implemented set of conditions all “stakeholders” understand, have had a “voice” in its development, in an atmosphere where all stakeholder irrespective of their position or belief are extended common courtesy, the ultimate goal being to implement conditions which protect the long term integrity of our - water – a most essential requirement in the survival of our species.

Achieving adequately managed decentralized systems requires honest upfront “buy-in” from all those segments which make up the “decentralized” community, which range from: academia, engineers, real estate agents, system designers, O&M providers, septic pumpers, installation contractors, regulatory community and end users, most importantly – homeowners.

Let’s face it ……. HOMEOWNERS …… are the sacred cow in my state of Arizona and operate with virtual impunity. There is no one in my state beginning with our current Governor and spanning to your elected representatives who has the “balls” to hold any homeowner’s feet to the fire respecting the quality of effluent discharged from his system or to any long term O&M. The current Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Rules (ADEQ), by choice and design, which is exclusively the prevue of ADEQ, leaves this category of residential (decentralized) systems virtually without any enforcement or compliance.

In my state of Arizona there are over 500,000 existing decentralized systems, with more than 10,000 being added each year, most of which fall into that category noted by the author as ... “septic systems together with stormwater and sediment runoff are a significant non-point source of pollutants” … These systems are and will continue to be in Arizona given our explosive unrestricted growth and its continuing degrading impact upon our water, significant non-point sources of pollution of our aquifers.

In Arizona, my assessment is, the decentralized community (described above) remains disorganized, self-interest-motivated, without unified voice, increasingly polarized and predominately economically motivated. The “decentralized” community nation wide needs to choose to own its obligation on the affect the impact our work and products have upon our natural resource – water.

Adequately managed would as a first step include the realization that if every vessel which we choose to utilize for domestic sewage or commercial grease traps is NOT WATER TIGHT we are guilty of knowingly degrading our aquifers from which our potable water is drawn. In Arizona the decentralized community chose to put into place a “feel-good” unenforceable provision which is generally overlooked. As a result the new decentralized systems we are installing knowing pollute simply because the septic/grease traps tanks leak.

In Arizona, the decentralized community chose to initiate a residential re-sale inspection and certification program. This new program requires all residences offered for sale which have an “on-site” (decentralized) system to adhere to this mandatory inspection program, which on the surface most assuredly has great merit. The Arizona decentralized community also chose rather than put teeth into these provisions another “feel-good” gloss over was easier. As a result today we have a process without enforcement and which holds absolutely no one accountable, save the buyer - “caveat-emptor.” But hey, we can go around the nation and proclaim to others the strong environmental and proactive stance Arizona are taking.

Adequately managed is not easily attained but a goal most assuredly worthy of all of the time and effort we chose to commit. Should the decentralized community nation wide fail to achieve adequately managed we will commit our children and generations yet unborn to the lingering affects of our collective failure. Indeed the author is correct - the ball is in our court.