Health Hazards Declared On Vashon -- Failing Septic Systems In 4 Communities Cited

VASHON ISLAND - Four waterfront communities on Vashon Island have been declared severe health hazards because of failing septic systems. The problems may be even more widespread on Vashon Island and in other shoreline communities, King County officials say.

County health investigators studied septic systems at 468 Vashon homes over two years and found that 40 percent of them were failing or close to failing. In some cases, homes perched by the water - with little or no suitable land for a septic drain field - were piping waste directly into Puget Sound.

The Bunker Trail area, Cove and Beaulah Park, Spring Beach and Burton Village were declared health hazards.

The pollution had contaminated shellfish beds near the communities, and the county has recommended that no shellfish be collected near Quartermaster Harbor Marina, Kingsbury Beach, Patten Palisades, Spring Beach and Bunker Trail/Point Vashon.

"We've learned that there's a higher failure and pre-failure rate than anyone would have thought, and that the impacts on the environment are much greater than anyone would have thought," Tony Gomez, a senior environmental specialist with the county, said this week. He described the environmental impact as locally significant, but of minimal importance to the health of Puget Sound.

Similar situations probably prevail at locations around the island and in other older, high-density waterfront communities around Puget Sound, Gomez said.

The hazard declarations on Vashon open the way for some state money to alleviate the threats, but finding solutions will be complicated by the island's hydrology, its zoning and the expense of any alternative.

A standard home septic system has two main parts, a tank and a drain field. The solids settle out in the tank and begin to break down. Liquid waste then flows through perforated pipes in the drain field, where it is cleansed by percolating through the soil.

Drain fields on Vashon were typically too small, and there often wasn't enough soil depth to percolate the waste. Additionally, many of the septic systems were old and have not been maintained, Gomez said.

The communities now face the difficult task of solving their problems.

"We don't know what is the best solution over here," Gomez said.

As residents begin to study their alternatives, there is some hope that the state will help out. Areas declared to be severe health hazards are eligible for money from the state's Centennial Clean Water Fund.

The fund recently pitched in $1.5 million for residents of the Skyway neighborhood south of Seattle to hook up to a centralized sewer system.

There is a centralized sewer district on Vashon Island, but the closest of the four beachfront communities is about two miles from it.

Other alternatives include forming small cooperatives and using any one of a number of technologies to handle waste on site.

The first obstacle to any of these options is the island's community plan, which prohibits any public sewer systems outside of the island center.

That prohibition was written into the plan as a way of controlling growth, said Rick Ames, Vashon Sewer District manager. "Instead of using land-use tools to regulate land use, they're using public-health tools to regulate land use."

Efforts to modify the community plan are under way, Ames said, but finding changes that will please a growth-leery public will be tricky. The fear is that where sewers are built, growth will follow, he said.

Residents of the Bunker Trail neighborhood in the north part of the island are leaning toward a hookup with the sewer district, said Dave Rogers. Septic systems at about two-thirds of the homes there were found to be failing.

"People know that they're polluting the water and they want to do their part to clean up Puget Sound," Rogers said.

A preliminary estimate for running a line from Bunker Trail to the central district put the cost between $600,000 and $1 million, Rogers said.

Other people around the island may be in for sticker shock, too, said Gordon Clemans, a county environmental-health specialist.

"Until fairly recently, the federal government paid 95 percent of the cost of these sewage plants, so nobody out there yet . . . realizes the cost of these things," Clemans said. "You're going to have to search high and low for all sorts of available funding for any of these projects to be viable."

If nothing is done, the county has the authority to force individual homes onto holding tanks, which must be pumped out regularly and at great cost. That has been required already in some of the worst situations uncovered on Vashon Island, Gomez said.