This has been a problem for a long time, but because of a child’s death, it’s finally coming to light. The problem is funding the inspection of septic tanks. Most communities like Jefferson County simply don’t have the money to staff inspections. The state should step in and help fund this, as should the septic owners.
After a two-year-old boy died and a 10-year-old girl was hurt in accidents involving septic tanks, KING 5 examined state and county data and discovered a trail of incomplete records and out of date inspections. The Washington State Department of Health admits it doesn’t know exactly how many on-site sewage systems exist in the state. DOH estimates 934,000 exist in the state and 613,000 of those are in the Puget Sound region. Of those, only a fraction are closely monitored. The majority of those are in marine recovery areas where a failure could be catastrophic to the area’s waterways. Danielle Leigh reports. (KING)
http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/2015/05/20/gaps-in-septic-tank-inspections/27694115/
Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: Puget Sound, septic tanks | Comments Off on KING 5 finds gaps in septic tank inspections – KING
