REGIONAL WATER QUALITY BOARD OK’S SEPTIC FOR SENIOR HOUSING

It was a marathon 4-hour meeting that didn’t even get all the way through the agenda. The California Regional Water Quality Control Board met in Yucca Valley Thursday morning to discuss the septic tank prohibition and the waste water system of the Town’s new affordable senior housing project. Board members stressed that enforcement of the septic ban would be completely random, with letters and abatement and cease-and-desist orders to the property owner. Moving on to the Yucca Valley senior housing project, the developer, National CORE, had a last-minute request to change its septic system to a packaged plant system, and not even hook up into the proposed sewer system. The water district and others opposed the change, and it was also pointed out the item had not been properly noticed. The Board approved CORE’s earlier plan for the septic tank, saying that CORE could upgrade to a package plant later. On that note, the meeting and the rest of the discussion about septic prohibition in Yucca Valley was continued until the Board’s meeting in September.