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PB Agenda Packet 5-6-26
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PB Agenda Packet 5-6-26
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5/6/2026
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DRAFT <br /> 600 <br /> 601 Cy Stober: The monitoring's required by the permit, so that's already baked in. <br /> 602 <br /> 603 Charity Kirk: Okay. <br /> 604 <br /> 605 Cy Stober: And Tony, when he presented, used in contrast to Hardscrabble, he used Piney Mountain, <br /> 606 and if you go back and listen to the audio recording, which is around an hour in, he does a <br /> 607 much better job than I can. But basically, had they done the soil suitability assessment, <br /> 608 they never would have been permitted to build the community system at Piney Mountain. <br /> 609 The soils are garbage. They're not appropriate for a community system, but it predates all <br /> 610 of the permitting programs that exist. Hardscrabble did the homework, and they made <br /> 611 sure that their site worked for their community system, so the failure of the Piney <br /> 612 Mountain, it was a lack of due diligence up front. There's probably more to it. I'm <br /> 613 probably overgeneralizing, and I'm out of my element in terms of talking about what is <br /> 614 other people's expertise, but it was a learning lesson; a hard, hard learning lesson for the <br /> 615 county, and for the state, as well as that community. <br /> 616 <br /> 617 Charity Kirk: So, do you feel like we could do this in this county safely with the current options? <br /> 618 <br /> 619 Cy Stober: I am not an environmental health professional nor an engineer, but everything that Tony <br /> 620 Whitaker presented suggested if you do all the due diligence up front and you have the <br /> 621 safeguards that you already mentioned in place through the state permitting process, it is <br /> 622 reasonable to think that these can be successful. And he said in his presentation they <br /> 623 generally perform better and are a safer wastewater investment than individual systems. <br /> 624 <br /> 625 Charity Kirk: Is there a concern that the state won't like the regulation and then change it somehow, <br /> 626 like they seem to do? <br /> 627 <br /> 628 Cy Stober: Environmental health seems to be more at the whims of the legislature than in building <br /> 629 inspections or planning. They regularly get updates to their code at every session. So, <br /> 630 yes, I mean, 10 years ago, they would have been required to have a county permit and <br /> 631 gone through county reviews, but that was taken away from the county with the EOP <br /> 632 process, and now applicants have the right to just go to the state and leave the county out <br /> 633 of that process. But the county used to have to be included. <br /> 634 <br /> 635 Tom Altieri: There is a summary that Mr. Whitaker provided, a couple of tables, that's on Pages 8 and <br /> 636 9; advantages and disadvantages of the community system from his perspective. <br /> 637 <br /> 638 Beth Bronson: So, that's page 22. <br /> 639 <br /> 640 Cy Stober: It's pages 24 and 25 in the agenda packet. <br /> 641 <br /> 642 Beth Bronson: I just have a comment if it's okay. Charity, do you have any more to add? <br /> 643 <br /> 644 Charity Kirk: Not right now. <br /> 645 <br /> 646 Beth Bronson: Because I do want to build off of what you're saying, is that we're talking about <br /> 647 enforcement, we're talking about suitability, we're talking about due diligence, and I think <br /> 648 that the one thing that we're not talking about enough, and that is the most-known <br /> 649 problem, is the soil quality. We are a county built on clay, and that is not conducive to <br />
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