[ca-gw] Are EH Directors Ignorant and Lazy?

[Bill Wilson]

I want to commend the CCDEH for their contribution to the stakeholders'
coalition in developing the consensus on AB885, dealing with the Statewide
update to the onsite wastewater code, which unfortuneately has not been able
to break out of gridlock.  The consensus is really remarkable when you
consider that it spans real estate groups, the design-engineering community,
and environmental health professionals, and includes COWA, CEHA, and the
CCDEH, among a wide array of interests.  So far the graywater group has
been smooth sailing compared to 885...




On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 5:05 PM, Banner, Brad <BBanner at buttecounty.net>wrote:

>  Steve, I never know whether to reply to your statements about CCDEH, but
> just this once I think I will:
>
>
>
> State law requires Environmental Health Directors to be Registered
> Environmental Health Specialists.  So at a minimum, all CCDEH members have
> their REHS. The following link shows the education requirements to be
> registered as an REHS:
>
>
>
>
> http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/occupations/Documents/REHS/EdRequirements.pdf
>
>
>
> Environmental Health Directors typically are overwhelmed managing a broad
> variety of EH programs, making it difficult to get deeply involved in any
> one program area and especially difficult to get deeply involved in an issue
> that is somewhat peripheral to their primary programmatic responsibilities.
> Programs typically managed by EH Directors include regulation of the
> following:
>
>
>
> Ø      Retail food facility regulation (health inspection of restaurants,
> markets, bar, temporary events etc.)
>
> Ø      Recreational water regulation (usually public swim pools and spas,
> but some inspect surface water)
>
> Ø      Body art (tattoo shops, permanent cosmetics, body piercing)
>
> Ø      Institutional health (jails, schools)
>
> Ø      Land use (inspection, review and conditions for use permits,
> rezones, parcel and subdivision maps, etc.)
>
> Ø      On-site wastewater (of which graywater is now an offshoot)
>
> Ø      Well permitting and inspections
>
> Ø      Local Primacy Agency (LPA) for public water systems (permitting,
> inspection, monitoring, quality assurance)
>
> Ø      Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA) for hazardous material,
> hazardous waste, underground storage tank oversight and regulation
>
> Ø      Local Enforcement Agency (LEA) for solid waste program regulating
> landfills (both open and closed), transfer stations, recycling stations
>
> Ø      Lots and lots of citizen complaints (today we are working with
> people living on a small residential lot that was invaded by 100+ Blue
> Herons turning their home and property white with bird feces!)
>
>
>
> The reason most EH Directors are concerned about graywater reuse,
> especially if the reuse is essentially unregulated (ie. no permits or
> notification required by law) is that there is the potential for disease
> transmission. Now while Art makes a convincing case for there already being
> widespread use of unpermitted graywater systems with little or no record of
> graywater associated illnesses, EH Directors are concerned because of the
> potential for it because they know that the same pathogens in blackwater are
> also found in graywter.
>
>
>
> To understand the EH perspective on this, I would suggest you do a Google
> search of “life expectancy” and “sanitation.” In the US, a dramatic increase
> in life expectancy took place in the early part of the 1900s that has been
> attributed to proper disposal of sewage (reducing people’s contact with
> their wastes) and clean water (no longer contaminated be sewage). Looking
> outside of the US, one citation states:
>
>  “In 1978 the Cambridge researchers, S.H. Preston and E. van de Walle,
> publish a study on the increase in life expectancy of French women from 1816
> to 1905 in the three largest cities (Paris, Lyons, Marseilles). This study
> shows that this is mainly due to the arrival of water treatment and
> sanitation systems.”
>
> When I first began my career in environmental health in the 1970s, we were
> all called Sanitarians, a name that was later changed to Environmental
> Health Specialists when it became stylish for professions to give themselves
> fancier sounding names. The point is this:  An EH Director is a Sanitarian
> with the mission of protecting and building upon the advances in sanitation
> that have been made in the past by the predecessors in our profession. So
> the reuse of graywater feels to many EH Directors like a step backward in
> the progress that has been made in sanitation systems.
>
> So while I am more supportive (because of my own philosophy, experiences,
> and circumstances) than many other EH Directors of the changes that are
> being made to the Plumbing Code, I respect my colleagues in CCDEH who
> disagree with me, and I would like to think that we can all disagree with
> mutual respect.  I hope sharing these thoughts with this important group
> will be helpful in that regard.
>
> -Brad
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org [mailto:
> ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org] *On Behalf Of *Steve Bilson
> *Sent:* Friday, June 19, 2009 10:34 AM
> *To:* 'Jon Bauer'; ca-standard at graywater.org
> *Subject:* Re: [ca-gw] [SPAM] Re: Fwd: Graywater Standards -
> CaliforniaPlumbing Code (Title 24, Part 5, Chapter 16A, Part I)
>
>
>
> Yes, the emergency request is a great leap forward and, if approved by the
> Secretary of State, will allow early use of the code that everyone
> contributed to.  There will be a hearing on July 30 that we need to attend
> to insure that CCDEH does not try to get their way despite overwhelming
> support even at DPH for the code that is being proposed by DHCD.
>
>
>
> CCDEH has historically been the lowest common denominator when it comes to
> understanding the science on greywater.  Their organization consists mainly
> of people with a surprisingly minimal amount of education for their position
> of authority, with virtually no science background required.  Their
> perspective is that whoever has a fear must be mollified, so their group
> perspective on this proposed code at the BSC will not be helpful.  I will be
> there on the 30th to fend off their last minute effort to derail this
> process and I suggest as many as can attend do attend.
>
>
>
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-- 
Bill Wilson
(805) 689-7639 Cell
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