Sonoma County’s Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) will host a workshop this week to offer information about a revised Onsite Wastewater Treatment System (OWTS) manual.
The OWTS regulations apply to commercial and residential septic systems, many of them facing stricter compliance standards in Sonoma County especially if they are within 600 feet of the Russian River or its tributaries.
The March 30 workshop takes place 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the PRMD hearing room at the county administration center.
“The purpose of this document is to allow continued Permit Sonoma authorization for oversight of OWTS countywide,” said the county announcement.
The new OWTS manual is primarily “a reformatted version of existing county regulations and standards to comply with the State Water Resources Control Board OWTS policy…,” said the media announcement from PRMD, now called Permit Sonoma.
Two years ago the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved submittal of the OWTS manual to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board for review and approval. The regional water board provided comments that required changes to the OWTS manual.
The revised OWTS manual was reviewed by a subcommittee of the county land use advisory panel last month and was released for public review and comment.
A previous allowance of voluntary OWTS repairs has been eliminated, said county officials. In the latest version, a new or replacement wastewater dispersal system must meet a two-foot separation to groundwater, have adequate soil type and depth, and be designed by appropriately licensed professionals as qualified consultants.
Other changes include:
- The remodel/rebuild and minor/major addition thresholds are staying the same. The definitions have been revised for clarity. The requirement relative to roofs has been deleted.
- The OWTS manual includes a financial hardship provision that allows a client an exemption from the standards provided a hardship exists as demonstrated by the client and as approved by the director of Permit Sonoma. The hardship replacement permit will not grant any building permits.
- The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted a revised waiver of waste discharge requirements that now includes OWTS that cannot meet the 2-foot separation to groundwater. The OWTS manual contains a provision that if the system cannot meet that standard, the mitigation involves application for a waiver from the regional water board. Local programs cannot waive or mitigate this standard per the state’s OWTS Policy.
