We at Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department have heard from many residents of the Key Peninsula that regular septic inspections can be a burden. They take time and cost money. We’ve also heard how much you value the health of our beautiful beaches, lakes, rivers, and Puget Sound. And how much you love to eat all the wonderful shellfish that come from our shores.
Regular septic operation and maintenance protect our water. This helps all of us, especially those working in our historic shellfish industry. The attached map shows the progress we’ve made since 2021 on the Key Peninsula by regularly informing residents their inspections are due and educating them on the importance of routine septic inspections.
We also understand your concerns about time and money.
By summer we’ll roll out a new waiver program to give you more time between inspections.
We are also exploring the feasibility of a self-inspection program with a potential launch in 2026. We saw this was the subject of a recent letter to the editor in the KP News, and we’ve heard from a lot more people since.
We know this is a hot topic on the Key Peninsula. Some of the messages we’ve received recently have come close to harassment.
I want you to know, we hear you. We also have a job to do, and that means thoroughly evaluating similar programs in neighboring counties before we develop and launch our own.
State law requires all homeowners to get gravity septic systems inspected every three years. We regularly offer extensions of up to a year for most homeowners.
In response to your feedback, we successfully petitioned the Washington State Department of Health for a waiver to increase the time between inspections for these systems from three years to five for many homeowners in Pierce County, including the Key Peninsula.
These homeowners will also now be able to take a class to learn about their systems and what to watch out for, and we’ll add two years to when your next inspection is due. Homeowners in sensitive areas near waterways may not qualify. These systems can easily contaminate water and food resources if a failure or repair isn’t addressed early and fixed.
This new timeframe will cut the cost of regular inspections for most qualifying homeowners nearly in half.
We also offer a robust financial assistance program. It can help cover much of the inspection costs. Learn more at tpchd.org/septiccare.
Implementing a self-inspection program will take more time.
We talked about this last April with the KP News and are continuing to explore this option. To do so will take a little more time and mean more work for homeowners than the waiver program. First and foremost, we’ve got to make sure the numbers work. Most programs in other counties haven’t shown promising results.
In Pierce County, septic professionals report deficiencies in about 15% of the systems they inspect.
Homeowners in surrounding counties who inspect their own systems identify deficiencies in just 0-5% of systems.
This is why a self-inspection class will need to train you to look for the same issues certified professionals do. It will be much more extensive than the waiver class to ensure homeowners who inspect their systems are equipped with the knowledge and skills to identify deficiencies and protect our environment.
We’ll have more details on the waiver program soon, and you can expect to hear more about self-inspections next year. We will also continue to evaluate these programs after we launch to make sure they are working.
You can always contact us at [email protected] or at 253-649-1421. We appreciate your feedback, especially when it is presented in a kind and constructive manner.
Chantell Harmon Reed is the director of public health at Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
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