Anecdotes
Greatest Success
Using the citizen stakeholder group to write the plan and the innovative funding of the plan. In the first five years, the County had some lessons learned. Overall compliance with inspection requirements is 87 percent. They also noted that OSS problems are being found, including flooded drainfields and non-functioning or crushed pipes. In the first five years, over 100 new systems have been installed. Thurston County has found that fewer systems are failing over time.
Greatest Challenge
One challenge during the formation of Henderson and Nisqually SPDs was getting some watershed residents, whether they are on the shoreline or not, to have ownership, motivation and incentive to acknowledge that they have a role and responsibility regarding water quality and pollution.
Needs to Further Goals or Pollution Control Plan / Lessons Learned
Lessons learned about setting up an OSS O&M program include:
- The first cycle of the program is labor intensive.
- There is more than one on-site system per parcel.
- Septic and sewer records are often incomplete.
- Tax parcel numbers can change, so an OSS identification method is needed.
- Program costs were higher than expected, particularly for the owner inspector certification training program which was much more popular than anticipated, database/permit tracking/OSS records management systems, and compliance.
- Incentives work. Training program helped building TPH&SSD's credibility.
- Managing on-site systems for community and mobile home parks can be time-intensive.
- Permit tracking systems work, but are not ideal for on-going management of on-site systems.
- Dye tests are not always effective for streamside properties, because there are fewer direct drainages to streams.
- Programs need to provide flexibility for legitimate owner life issues, such as health problems, a death in the family, or deployment overseas.
Links to Other Documents
Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPP's)
Others
- Ordinance on Nisqually Reach Shellfish Protection District – October 2011 (PDF)
- Using DNA to Identify Nonpoint Pollution (PDF)
- Thurston County Environmental Health – Article IV (PDF)
- Nisqually Reach and Henderson Inlet SPDs, Combined Shellfish District's 2008 Annual Report (PDF)
- Nisqually Reach Pollution Source Identification, Task 5: DNA Typing Analysis (PDF)
- Bacteriological Contamination Source Identification, Henderson Inlet 1999-2001 (PDF)