THANK YOU!

We thank the following advertisers for supporting the COWA Newsletter:

Advanced Environmental Products, Bio-Microbics, Biosolutions, Dauwalder Engineering, Frank Dono, Geoflow, Lescure Engineers, Northstar , Orenco, Pace Supply, Questa Engineering, SJE Rhombus

MARCH MEMBER UPDATE

Excerpted from the COWA Newsletter Winter 2002-3

While many people wonder what 2003 will bring, here at COWA we can tell you – many exciting things are in store! New officers and Board Members will be announced soon. Later this spring we will reach a milestone with the first annual COWA conference and exhibition on May 1-2. Don’t miss this event featuring — you guessed it — technology and regulations! The year also brings continued debate on changes through AB885. Draft regualtions should be out shortly. Each of these topics is brought to you in this issue. Included in this issue are topics relevant to the AB885 debate: (1) that elusive subject vertical separation and (2) growth in California and how it affects the septic industry, or vice versa.

March Elections for COWA, 2003 Board of Directors

The COWA Board of Directors is currently composed of thirteen professionals who, through commitments of time, energy, and travel, seek to advance the professionalism of the onsite wastewater industry. Board members commit to steering COWA and helping it grow, organizing and facilitating workshops, monitoring legislation, and responding to issues raised by members. It is not an easy job but is rewarding. March 2003 is the beginning of the new term for the COWA Board of Directors. The full list of officers and board members will be posted in the near future.

President’s Message

Pete Lescure, Lescure Engineers

COWA has been very active in representing your interests in the development of statewide regulations in response to AB885 this year. COWA held the first Workshop in Santa Rosa on December 6, 2001, and four more --- Laughlin Nevada on March 18, Pomona on May 10, Sacramento on June 20 focusing on management, and again on December 2 focusing on the Draft Regulations. We have reached out geographically to bring it to you because we know it’s difficult for a lot of our members to get to Sacramento all the time.

The December 2 workshop was a pivotal point for the Draft Regulations. It was unanimously agreed on several points that the Draft Regulations at that time were not acceptable to the industry. At the workshop Ken Stuart of CCDEH formed a committee to prepare a set of regulations the industry can support, with cooperation from COWA and the California Onsite Wastewater Training and Research Center. Ideally, the aim is to convince the SWRCB staff to accept or incorporate the results of this rewrite in the proposed regulations that are circulated for environmental review. If this can’t be achieved, the results of the rewrite will would most likely be submitted as a “Stakeholder-Supported Alternative” for consideration during the CEQA environmental review process. Timing is critical because the CEQA process has to begin soon enough to meet the adoption deadline of January 1, 2004. Significant delays in accepting the Draft Regs could require an extension of the deadline due to the review periods legally mandated by CEQA. Legislative support will be needed to carry the legislation in the event that becomes necessary. Stay tuned for updates on the development of the statewide regulations. As we approach the newsletter publication date – the Committee is busily writing proposed changes and State WRCB staff appears willing to accept their work as commentary on the working draft. The committee anticipates completion of the rewrite effort in late February.

COWA is looking ahead to the need for practitioner training and certification. More rigorous standards expected from the regulations will require more highly trained practitioners for site evaluation, design, installation, operations and maintenance, and certainly - regulation too. We are looking first at training for inspection of existing systems to serve real estate transactions, remodels, repairs, and voluntary upgrades. Both NSFI (NSF International), and NAWT (National Association of Waste Transporters) have training programs we are evaluating. They each have strong merits, and significant differences. The Board also has to consider COWA’s financial position in evaluating which program to implement and how. We want to bring these programs to you at an affordable rate, but we have to consider the cost of providing these programs and COWA’s financial future. These are difficult decisions because none of us has experience at implementing statewide training programs.

As part of our effort to bring this training to you economically COWA has prepared a proposal, in cooperation with the Counties of Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara and the City of Malibu, to develop inspection guidelines based on the experience and programs in these three local jurisdictions in California. We submitted the proposal to the National Decentralized Water Resources Capacity Development Project (NDWRCDP), but recently learned that it was not selected for funding. We are currently pursuing other possible funding sources

WESTERN ONSITE WASTEWATER EXHIBITION AND TECHNICAL CONFERENCE

We are looking forward to a rich program focused on technology and introducing certification programs conducted in the Laughlin format – Exhibition and Conference in the same venue. We have rescheduled to a full two day event on May 1 and 2. This Exhibition and Conference will provide you the opportunity to:

**************************************

Cliff’s Comments – Cliff Trammel, Executive Director

With the elections and annual meeting dates fast approaching my thoughts turn to the past year and what COWA has accomplished. The Presidents message details the activities of the year and the goals for the year before us and beyond. I will reiterate that it has been a great experience working with the Board and the COWA members. It is very rewarding to set out with a vision for the growth of COWA and to accomplish the almost tripling of the membership, now at over three hundred and growing.

I cannot comment enough about those that have given time and effort in the cause of COWA and all of its members. This especially applies to the Board members who have given hours and hours of time and the accopanying travel to attend Board meetings, regulatory meetings, policy planning sessions,

hearings and workshops not to mention the time spent in their offices on COWA business. When something happens that affects your business you can be fairly confident that someone or some committee in COWA has alerted the Board of Directors and appropriate actions are taken to protect the interests of the onsite wastewater community. A prime example is the AB885 legislation and hearings and the proactive response from COWA as explained in Pete’s message.

As we look ahead into the new year one thing is very obvious to me. We are going to need a lot of new faces to step forward and be counted amoung those working for the interest of not only themselves but also of their industry. Great things do not happen of their own accord. Events do not occur in a vacuum. Legislation and regulations are not always good. Great things happen because of the vision and determination of those that are aware of their environment and react to both threats and opportunity. Events occur because someone sees a need and works to fill it. Favorable laws and regulations are the result action when and where it is required. My Dad always told me there are three kinds of people, those that make things happen, those that watch things happen, and those that wake up and say “What happened!!!” Which do you want to be? COWA needs some doers for committees and events.Let us know if your interested.

*******************************************

Vertical Separation
– Part fact, part wild guess….

Much discussion on AB885 centers on prescriptive requirements such as setbacks and vertical separation. While setbacks refer to minimum horizontal distances, vertical separation is the depth of permeable unsaturated soil that exists between the bottom of a subsurface soil absorption system and a restrictive or limiting layer, usually bedrock, hardpan, groundwater, or excessively permeable materials. Discussions stem from the variability of soils to act as part of the treatment system, effecting degradation of unstabilized wastes, removing nutrients, and destroying pathogens. Complicating this issue is the degree of treatment prior to dispersal. When treatment does not include disinfection, a slow transport rate through unsaturated soils is essential to remove pathogen. The pathogens adsorb to soil particles, becoming prey to soil predators or dying off under aerobic condtions. Nitrogen compounds not removed by pretreatment are only diluted or, when aerobic pretreatment is used, convert to nitrates a highly soluble form readily tranported to ground water. In contrast, phosphate readily adsorbs to soil particles with little movement to groundwater, even under saturated conditions.

The key concepts of vertical separation are the maintenance of unsaturated soil conditions and a hydraulic loading rate slow enough to achieve treatment in the soil. Combined, these two features will promote aerobic conditions and increase the contact time for microbial and chemical reactions to occur. Even when these conditons are met, there is a certain distance that the effluent must travel to provide adequate treatment in the soil. This distance has been the topic of numerous academic research studies and is a source of debate on AB885.

The Small Flows Clearinghouse found a remarkable spread in vertical separation requirements for 45 states, ranging from 6 inches to 60 inches. This spread suggests tha the wild guess method may be broadly applied. The Washington State Department of Health conducted a literature review to better understand what constitutes adequate vertical separation. Studies reported acceptable microbial removals for separation distances from 15 to 48 inches. The health department noted that a key factor regulating bacterial removal is maintaining unsaturate soil condtions, which can be achieved by surface clogging from the biomat or smearing of the sidewalls, or by distribute the effluent uniformly over the field using low doses. Pressure distribution can be used to achieve uniform dispersal where site conditions yield minimal vertical separation.

California’s Growth and the Septic Industry

A recent contact through the COWA website raised the issue of how land development would change with the statewide change in septic requirements. County environmental health departments act as de facto zoning and planning agencies if forced to limit development when site conditions cannot support a standard septic system. With the advent of advanced technologies achieving high quality effluent for a reasonable sum, previously unsuitable sites may be eligible for alternative systems. This would remove the environmental health departments as the source of development limits. Open lands could change to other land uses per the existing zoning designation. In areas where the loss of open land is the reason for the communication from the website visitor.

This issue is not lost on others in the onsite wastewater community. In a June 2002 workshop with COWA and the California Environmental Health Association (CEHA), the same topic was addressed in a round table discussion. The round table group noted that alternative technologies are becoming recognized for improved performance and environmental protection, especially for constrained sites. Some view alternative technologies negatively because of their potential to allow increased growth in areas that might not otherwise accommodate onsite septic systems. This is one reason why alternative systems are sometimes allowed for repairs but disallowed for new systems. The group raised several questions, including the appropriateness of limiting the use of alternative technologies in order to achieve development goals. The group asked how to separate planning and zoning decisions from environmental health decisions – or not. Although the environmental benefits of using alternative systems is obvious to the onsite industry, the complexity of the land development aspect creates a difficult and seemingly contradictory environmental planning issue.

Now Online
Onsite Wastewater Regulations Database

Want to know the regulations for onsite wastewater systems in your state? Now you can search the National Small Flows Clearinghouse's Regulations Database online at http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/nsfc/nsfc_regulations.htm

This collection can help customers seeking information for a particular state or those who want to compare regulatory structures between states. It is particularly useful to states seeking assistance in revising regulations.

The Regulations Database allows customers to review copies of onsite wastewater regulatory documents and helps the NSFC determine if it is meeting the growing and changing needs of the regulatory community. It should be noted that while information from the database is provided to customers, the NSFC does not interpret regulations for customers. For additional information, please contact your state's onsite wastewater regulatory contact. A list of contacts is on the Web at http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/nsfc/nsfc_regulations_contacts.htm

EXHIBIT AND CONFERENCE IS SHAPING UP!!

COWA’s 1^st Annual Western Onsite Wastewater Exhibit and Technical conference is taking shape and promises to be very productive for all concerned. At press time the COWA Directors are working on a slate of speakers that will represent the best of current knowledge and technology in regards to onsite wastewater treatment, dispersal and management. Exhibitors have been quick to respond and as you can see in the list below the industry and its technology will be well represented.

Western Onsite Wastewater Exhibitors

Bio-Microbics, Inc., Bord Na Mona – Puraflo, Clearstream Wastewater Systems Inc., Consolidated Treatment Systems, Inc, CULTEC, Delta Environmental Products, Geoflow, Infiltrator Systems Inc., MicroSepTec

NCS Wastewater Solutions, Norwesco, Orenco Systems, Inc, Pace Supply, Smith & Loveless, XERXES Corporation

Zabel Environmental Technology

We thank these exhibitors them for their early support. There is limited space for additional exhibitors. Contact the COWA office.