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Septic System Management Program <br />August 24, 1990 <br />Page 7 of 16 <br />a) Residents expect soil testing/system design that <br />meets City Code standards. <br />Although not strictly a factor that can be changed by <br />the City, there is a distinct lack of qualified and <br />competent site evaluators. There are currently just a <br />few site evaluators in the area whose work has been <br />consistently of high quality. At least 3 or 4 other <br />good ones have left the business within the last 5 <br />years (Gary Rathbun of Hakanson, Anderson Asssociates; <br />Tom Smith; Dave Ross from Schoell & Madson). There are <br />an additional 3 or 4 who have exhibited poor <br />methodology, poor reporting, or outright incompetence <br />including actual deceitful practices (i.e. submitting <br />reports for work that was never done, and completely <br />ignoring obvious soil/site factors in order to allow a <br />trench system where one shouldn't have been). <br />/The point of this is that an incompetent site evaluator <br />-takes up significant amounts of staff time and <br />investigative effort. We have been fortunate in being <br />able to steer developers away from some of the worst <br />offenders, but we can't totally eliminate them from the <br />business, hence when they show up we have no choice but <br />to devote the necessary time and effort to closely <br />monitor their work. <br />b) Residents expect installations that meet City Code. <br />Installers generally have become much more skilled, <br />experienced and competent since 1978, in part due to <br />good training programs at the State level. However, <br />the State voluntary certification program currently has <br />no "teeth", and a lot of less-than-competent installers <br />have managed to obtain State Certification while there <br />is currently no mechanism for revocation of same.