“I found my calling,” says Freeland, a semiretired septic system consultant who prefers to go by Uncle Buddy or The Shit Whisperer, over the phone.
For most of us, though, septic system tanks and drain fields don’t inspire a sense of the divine. But ignoring the poop passageways beneath our feet is something people in the Puget Sound region can’t afford to do.
“Human sewage and also animal waste are the largest vectors for pollution that impact shellfish around the Puget Sound region and in some areas of Puget Sound,” says Mindy Roberts, Puget Sound program director of the Washington Environmental Council. These creatures are already facing ocean acidification and warming waters that force huge die-offs, like that during the June 2021 heat wave.
It’s for that reason Puget Sound Partnership, in its annual State of the Sound report, tracks septic system inventory, inspection and repair in designated high-risk areas. The report dives into progress across dozens of key indicators — known as “vital signs” — of the estuary’s health.
While septic system maintenance work hasn’t quite reached levels the partnership aimed for by 2020, it’s among 11 of 52 “vital sign” indicators listed as trending positively — a silver lining in a report filled with slow progress made slower in a pandemic year.
Well-maintained septic systems can be low-impact ways to manage an inevitability of life, says Jeremy Simmons, wastewater section manager in the Washington Department of Health’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety.
When septic systems fail, untreated human waste and all of its nutrients, bacteria (specifically fecal coliform), viruses and pharmaceuticals flow not only into unsuspecting people’s homes, but also into the fragile Puget Sound ecosystem. The hazardous cocktail threatens re-creation and bioaccumulates in shellfish that serve a $107 million industry and sustain Indigenous communities already facing the brunt of climate crisis impacts. Many of these systems abut shorelines, where failures can result in direct, unfiltered influxes into the sound and threaten human health.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Salish Sea is a leading North American producer of shellfish, harvested both commercially and recreationally for plates around the world. In addition to climate change, regional development and the attending infrastructure we use to handle waste affect the makeup of shellfish, including clams, geoduck, mussels and oysters. As filter feeders that consume indiscriminately whatever washes over their beds, shellfish are liable to siphon metals, waste-borne viruses and prescription drugs and other damaging pollutants into their soft tissue and even their shells. That puts whomever is unlucky enough to consume them in the path of disease and poisoning.
While nutrient overload can cause algal blooms that throw aquatic ecosystems out of whack, the concern about fecal matter mainly relates to people eating tainted shellfish. “Shellfish are pretty hardy little beasts. And as long as there isn't specific chemicals killing them, or sediments smothering them, they're probably going to survive,” says Dr. Sheri Tonn, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Pacific Luthernan University and co-founder of Communities for a Healthy Bay.
New financial resources for repairing costly septic systems and efforts to track down incompletely documented septic infrastructure have helped the region continue to make progress. But there’s a lot of room for growth — both in how we maintain septic systems and how they are monitored. As climate change leads to heavy precipitation, sea level rise and flooding, and as population booms and development increases stress on waste systems, environmental groups and government agencies are keeping a close eye on septic systems.
Is septic monitoring on track?
Puget Sound has made the most progress in identifying where septic systems are, with room to improve inspections and repairs.
Puget Sound Partnership’s 2020 goal, set in 2011, was for the 12 public health systems in the region to finish inventorying on-site sewage systems in specially designated areas, to be current with 95% of inspections, and to fix all system failures. The designated areas covered by the report include those close to potential or threatened shellfish harvesting sites, including marine recovery areas and shellfish protection districts — not all septic systems in the region. A Puget Sound Partnership draft technical memo from 2011 also set a goal of a 10,80-acre net increase in harvestable shellfish area.
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December 03, 2021 at 08:02PM
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Fixing septic systems is key to protecting Puget Sound shellfish - Crosscut
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