[ca-gw] Graywater ordinance roundtable

[Steve Bilson]

You were lucky that some "environmental health" zealot didn't pick up that
ball and run with it, to the wrong end zone.  Your Board and group have the
right idea - educate people about what is already available in this new
code, Chapter 16-A.  Once they know that this is the third generation code,
with 14 years of experience behind it, they might start to see it for what
it is, a good tool for them that promotes safe water conservation.

 

From: ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org
[mailto:ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org] On Behalf Of Sherry Bryan
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 10:22 AM
To: elizabeth dougherty; ca-standard at graywater.org
Cc: eliz at whollyh2o.org
Subject: Re: [ca-gw] Graywater ordinance roundtable

 

Hi Elizabeth,

This is Sherry here, from Ecology Action in Santa Cruz. In March, 2009,
Ecology Action and the CA Ecological Landscaping Association created the
Central Coast Graywater Alliance for the purpose of creating a model
graywater ordinance with the idea that uniformity in graywater permitting
between local jurisdictions would encourage green jobs and code compliant
graywater installations.  We created a series of roundtables, inviting all
the same groups that you mentioned in your e-mail.  The first meeting
quickly turned into more meetings, and after 6 months we developed a
concensus about what concerns would be included in a regional ordinance.
When the Alliance presented the idea of an ordinance to the Santa Cruz
County chief building inspector, city planning department directors, and
the director of Environmental Health, they balked at the staff time involved
(and public unrest) in having to push through a more restrictive ordinance
to to the Board of Supervisors. They told us to please not spend our talent,
time and energy on ordinance language, and to instead focus on educational
efforts to ensure that systems would be code compliant with Chapter 16A.  

I share our experience with you because perhaps in your first Bay Area
roundtable meeting, you may want to involve local Planning Department and
Environmental Health directors right from the beginning to see what course
of action might fulfill their needs best, as they will ultimately be the
people that will have to push through an ordinance to their City Councils
and Boards of Supervisors. 

Thank you for all you do! 


Sherry Lee Bryan
Senior Program Specialist
Ecology Action of Santa Cruz
PO Box 1188 
Santa Cruz, CA 95061-1188
(831) 426-5925 x114

   

On 10/30/09 9:38 AM, "elizabeth dougherty" <elizd at elizd.com> wrote:

> I think I'll to put together a 2 hour roundtable discussion,
"Considerations
> for Adapting the CA Graywater Code into a Locally Appropriate Ordinance:
> Uniform Plumbing Code, Chapter 16, Part A" be.  It'll in the Bay Area in
> mid-January.  
> 
> My thought is to have someone from a water agency/provider, a
> building/plumbing inspector, county/city sustainability personnel, Water
> Quality expert (or dept. of public health), graywater design/iinstaller
> professional, and perhaps someone from HCD or DWR all give a 10-12 minute
> schpeel about their thoughts/considerations/concerns related to graywater
> code implementation for an hour.  Second hour is audience questions and
> general discussion among discussants and audience of concerns, issues,
etc.
> It will be geared toward county and city, water agency etc personnel
related
> to contributing to creating a local ordinance. Probably wouldn't hurt to
> invite the public as well.
> 
> It will be useful to get people together and hash through some of the
> information and concerns in a constructive, informative way as we work
> through the current stage of "local implementation".  I'll send  a more
> formal invite out a few weeks ahead.
>  
> Feel free to contact me with suggestions of "not to miss" discussion
> topics/points or speaker suggestions.
> 
> Elizabeth 
> 
> "For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it
> rain." 
> HW Longfellow
> ***********************************************************
> elizabeth dougherty, phd
> director, whollyh2o
> sf bay area, ca
>           
> whollyh2o:                www.whollyh2o.org
> norcal arcsa:            www.wiserearth.org/group/arcsanorcal
> home page:              www.elizd.com
> 
> 
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