Four years ago, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a septic tank discharge prohibition of May 2016 for Yucca Valley residents. However, the Hi-Desert Water District estimates that the waste water treatment facility won’t be operational until the end of 2018, which means that town residents would be out of compliance for two years unless the Water Quality Control Board changes the deadlines. Managing editor Tami Roleff was at the board’s meeting in Yucca Valley yesterday, and says the idea of changing the deadlines met with some resistance…
During yesterday’s meeting of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, a suggestion was made that the staff’s limited resources should be directed toward other projects instead of expending their time and energy on changing the deadlines for Yucca Valley’s septic tank discharge prohibition. However, the directors were told that there is more to be done than just changing the dates, and the board’s attorney reminded directors that one of the conditions of the state’s low-interest loan to the Hi-Desert Water District is that the town must be in compliance with the Basin Plan Amendment. Ed Muzik, who is the general manager of the Hi-Desert Water District, and a member of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, explained, even with the passing of the assessment district, why it’s necessary to extend the deadlines. “People assumed now that it’s [the assessment district] passed, that the May 2016 date is going away, and it’s going to tie into the construction schedule. And if you leave it there, even though there may not be enforcement actions, people are going to look, will you still have septic prohibition, you’re in non-compliance. I think it’s gotta change.” The board’s chair, Ellen Way, agreed. “We shouldn’t get in the way or impede this from happening.” Staff hopes to have the new deadlines to the water district by August, by the time the district puts out requests for proposals construction for the waste water treatment plant.
