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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1991/05/20 - Board of Health MASON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH MAY 20, 1991 A special Board of Health meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m. by Chairperson Laura E. Porter to consider the on-site sewage system survey of North Bay, Case Inlet. ATTENDANCE: Laura Porter, Chairperson William O. Hunter, Board Member Michael D. Gibson, Board Member Brad Banner, Health Services Director Wayne Clifford, Health Services/Water Quality Coordinator GUESTS IN ATTENDANCE: Darrel Anderson, Department of Ecology; Ed Skewis; David Lenning, Department of Health; Gary Plews, Department of Health; and David Lehning, Department of Health. WATER QUALITY CASE INLET SURVEY Wayne Clifford, Water Quality Coordinator, submitted a copy of the on-site sewage system survey from North Bay, Case Inlet. He noted that the staff began the survey of onsite sewage systems in North Bay area early this winter. The first phase extended from Bensons Cove north to Coulter Creek and included some of the central town of Allyn. The initial findings found 39 systems in the area failing. Several of the systems had surfacing effluent or were discharging grey water to the bay. The North Bay has been declassified by the State Department of Health as prohibited to shellfish harvesting. Board Member Gibson asked if the declassification was for commercial harvesting or all shellfish harvesting. Mr. Clifford responded that it is for commercial harvesting. The County staff has posted the beach as a health advisory to the people, as of last Friday, that the shellfish are contaminated at the Port of Allyn dock. He recommended that the area be declared a "health hazard" due to the fact there is a potential for people to come in contact with inadequately treated sewage and consequent potential health risk. Chairperson Porter asked for clarification on the area which is being recommended as a health hazard. Mr. Clifford stated that he was under the impression that for a health hazard there didn't need to be a finite boundary for the area. It could be a general location such as North Bay north of the decertification line Department of Health is using for their closure. MASON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH MAY 20, 1991 - PAGE 2 Brad Banner,Health Services Director,added that there are a lot of issues involved as to where the lines should be. The County could include the entire drainage in the North Bay or restrict it to the lowest swampiest areas. There is a considerable amount of thought that will have to go into this. Also, depending on the action taken it could have repercussions on people inside the area. He expressed his interest in involving the public to specify the area. Staff is recommending a general area as a health hazard. Mr. Clifford suggested that North Bay north of the decertification line and its adjacent shorelines could be the area. Dave Lang, Washington State Department of Health, concurred with Mr. Clifford that technically a finite geographic boundary is not necessary. The County will have to determine what will be best to bring about the results that are wanted; mitigation measures with restrictions; new construction. It is easier if there is a finite boundary. Board Member Gibson asked for an explanation of the process of declaration of a health hazard. Mr. Lang stated that Department of Ecology and Department of Health have concurred on the methodology for funding for Centennial Clean Water Funds. Criteria have been set as to what has to be met before a public health hazard is considered. There is an application process of what kinds of things have to be included. For public health hazard there has to be something that gives proof. In this case, there is some water quality and shoreline work in the North Bay area. That kind of data accompanied by mitigation measures as to how it will be prevented. This needs to be a formal submittal from the Health Officer to the Director of Department of Health. As staff person, he would get back with Department of Ecology to jointly look at things. They come up with an agreement and send a response back. There are ways of speeding up that process. They are not looking for a formal drawn process. They are looking at what mitigative measures are going to be taken and what boundaries will be applied. Board Member Gibson added that these are two mandates for a formal declaration of a health hazard. Dr. Hoover asked if Department of Health has to be concurred with Department of Ecology. Mr. Lang responded, no, Department of Health makes the final decision. Darryl Anderson, Department of Ecology SW Regional office,commented that in the financial program their department will be working closely with Department of Health in evaluating the application for declaration of hazard. Dr. Hoover asked if there is any other way to do it. Mr. Lang commented that this is being done from the standpoint to secure as much funding as possible to make it cost effective as possible, short term and long term wise. There are two activities (events) that can kick this funding into gear. One is a public health hazard declaration and another is a consent or administrative order from Department of Ecology. MASON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH MAY 20, 1991 - PAGE 3 Darryl Anderson added that funding can be triggered by a declaration of health hazard or administrative order by Department of Ecology or a consent order between DOE and the County or even with DOH. This process is the best for the purposes discussing now. Mr. Lang added that it does address the health concern. Mr. Banner commented that another factor that timing is important is that there are 40 known failing septic systems right now. Twenty are directly discharging into the Bay. The remaining are marginally operating. There are enforcement letters that need to go out and get these situations stopped. He commented that he is hesitant to send out enforcement letters until there is adequate staff to deal with the people coming in for assistance. They hope to get staffing through the grant. Board Member Hunter questioned what it means to declare a health hazard. He asked what the first consequence is to the people in the Allyn/Victor area. Mr. Banner responded that this gets into the area of what the mitigative plans will be. The County will have to delineate an area and determine what to do in that area. Whether it will be a building moratorium, partial moratorium,or other requirements. The Board will make the determination on what to do. Chairperson Porter clarified that she understands there are two steps to the decision. One is declaring a health hazard and the second is developing a mitigation plan which will guide the effect on the systems. Dave Lang commented that some type of mitigative measures need to be a part of the request to the Department of Health. Mr. Banner asked if repair of failing systems be a specific mitigation measure and then allow some of the long term measures open so that some additional work can be done on them. Mr. Lang commented that it would be nice to have some kind of a plan. The community, the local health officer and Board of Health have agreed that there is a problem. In order to convince DOH and DOE that there is a problem the County needs to speak to some other activities. There needs to be some kind of restrictions in the form of a moratorium or other requirements. Board Member Gibson stated that short of the mitigation or correction of immediate failing systems it appears the other measures have not been identified yet. He again asked the question if there are other mitigation requirements expected. Mr. Lang stated that within the next 30 days they will come up with a plan. There has to be enough of a gesture locally that there is concern. In order to be consistent mitigative measures have to be spoken to. Ed Skewis, citizen,spoke to the letters of mitigation and the process that it takes to go through. He asked if there is a time frame for notification to the failing system owners of the process or steps they have to take to mitigate the problem in their specific area. MASON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH MAY 20, 1991 - PAGE 4 Mr. Banner responded that the 40 people with failing systems were notified by letter May 1, 1991. The next step is to work on alternatives for repair work systems. After that a policy needs to be established on time frame. Health Services has taken the 40 systems and prioritized them into 4 categories: Category 1 = Highest priority is directly discharging into the Bay. Category 2 = Systems that are failing and sewage is surfacing to the top of the ground, but is not directly going into the ground. Category 3 = Illegal systems, unapproved systems like cesspools. Category 4 = Systems they expect to have considerable dialogue with the owners. These are ones they have found the drainfield completely flooded with ground water. They expect to have give and take with the people. The timelines for dealing with these are: Category 1 = 2 days to stop the discharge (capping) and pumping the tank and stopping it. Within 7 days they must have a plan of action on how they will correct it. The exception would be to allow a holding tank for a small trailer or cabin for seasonal people. Category 2 = They will have 10 working days to get in a plan. Thirty days to fix the situation. Category 3 = Fourteen days to turn in a plan and 60 days to get it fixed. Category 4 = They have 30 days for a plan and 60 days to get it fixed. Mr. Skewis asked if there is a given time that the second letter will be mailed out. Mr. Banner responded that it will be at the Board's direction. He noted that he didn't want to get too far ahead of the enforcement letters and have people coming in and the Health Services Department not having adequate staff to work with the people on the designs. Gary Yando,Public Works/Utilities Division,questioned about the boundaries of 100'out into the water. Board Member Gibson clarified that he was concerned with how much geographic boundary will be taken into consideration and also how much will be upland. Mr. Yando proceeded that before the County would receive the declaration by the Health Department, the boundaries would have to be set. Mr.Lang interjected that not necessarily. For the ease of implementing the mitigative measures the County may want to have the boundaries set. Dr. Hoover clarified that it is the upland boundaries and not the shoreline. Mr. Lang again stated that there are normally no finite boundaries with the request. MASON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH MAY 20, 1991 - PAGE 5 He added that the mitigative measures could include how to take care of the existing problems. Also, it could include how it will be monitored. Chairperson Porter asked if the mitigative plan provides a timeline for the planning. She also questioned if the County will have had to have made all the decisions on the details of the mapping or whether there will be a moratorium. She asked if the planning can be on a timeline for the mitigative measures. Mr. Lang responded, yes from his perspective with DOH. One thing which will be done immediately is the repairs. Some kind of time frame would be acceptable to. Mr. Anderson stated that long term planning is not necessary for the financial program. They are interested in getting the immediate situation under control. EXECUTIVE SESSION At 4:05 p.m. Board Member Gibson/Hunter moved and seconded to go into executive session with legal counsel for 15 minutes. Motion carried unanimously. G-aye; H-aye; P-aye. Chairperson Porter called the meeting back to order at 4:20 p.m. Gary Plews, Department of Health, presented the Board of Health with the North Bay report. He explained that it contains all the water quality data and recommendation to change the area classification to "prohibitive." All the back up information is there plus the shoreline that Mr. Clifford has provided. Dr. Hoover commented that "prohibitive" and "restricted" are used. She asked for an explanation in the difference in the terms. Mr. Plews stated that there are four designations. First is "approved" which means you can harvest at any time. "Restricted" are the shellfish is moderately polluted, but can be removed to another area for cleansing. The third is "conditional" which means that from time to time the State Department of Health may close the area because of predictable pollution events such as Oakland Bay. The fourth is "prohibitive" and this deals with sufficient pollution sources identified that they can't offer any of the other three conditions. Harvesting commercial shellfish from the Bay is prohibited. Board Member Hunter asked what it does to the recreational harvesting. Mr. Plews added that they don't recommend either recreational or private harvesting. Their jurisdiction does not cover private harvesting. Chairperson Porter stated that the question before the Board of Health is whether to request Health Officer Dr. Hoover to ask that Department of Health designate the North Bay/Case Inlet area as a health hazard. Board Member Gibson stated that the Board of Health is concerned with the identified failing systems and the Board needs to address the systems as soon as possible. Board Member Gibson/Hunter moved and seconded to request the Health Officer to petition the Department of Health to declare a public health hazard within the geographic boundary as identified in the decertification line. Motion carried unanimously. G-aye; H-aye; P-aye. MASON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH MAY 20, 1991 - PAGE 6 Board Member Gibson noted that one area of mitigation identified is to immediately repair the identified failing systems and the second measure is to request 60 days to address the other mitigative measures. Board Member Gibson/Hunter moved and seconded to request the Mason County Health Services Department to immediately notify all residents, as much as possible, within the geographic boundary of the commercial beds and a strong recommendation that recreational shellfish not be harvested. Motion carried unanimously. G-aye; H-aye; P-aye. Janis Byrd, Journal, asked for an estimate of how much money is being talked about for the initial step of getting the repair under way and what is the scope of the project. Mr. Banner responded that it will cost approximately $7,000 per family times 39 families. Chairperson Porter added that the County would need a staff person to manage the planning. Ms. Byrd questioned if there is a grant. She was advised that the State Revolving Fund is being explored for immediate help of the individuals. Board Member Gibson added that the County is exploring all options. ADJOURNED The meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Rebecca S. Rogers Clerk of the Board MASON COUNTY HEALTH BOARD Lau E. Porter, Cha'rp rson Michael D. Gibson, Board Mem 6r William O. Hunter, Board Member