Current Events & News
Allen Worst, Vice President
R.C. Worst & Co. is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Allen Worst to an Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) committee for the purpose of reviewing and potentially, adjusting the current setback distances of residential drainfields to surface water. It was July of 2008 when Allen brought to the Technical Guidance Committee (TGC) of IDEQ a proposal to reduce current setback distances. Said proposal included environmental safeguard elements such as pre-treating the effluent prior to discharge, pressurized distribution of effluent to the drainfield as well as timed dosing of the effluent.
Allen has been an active participant in TGC meetings for the past five years. TGC members, as well as IDEQ personnel, felt compelled to form a sub committee specifically to address the proposed reductions. Allen is joined on the committee by TGC members Joe Canning of Boise and George Miles of Athol. Also sitting on the committee as chair person is IDEQ employee AJ Maupin. Additionally, John Corcoran representing the state realtor community and Brett Skidmore of the residential home building industry were appointed. Rounding out the committee are Dick Martindale and Nathan Taylor representing two of the seven health districts in Idaho as well as Dr. Jim Ippolito of the USDA and Bill Holder, PE of STRATA in Boise.
In recent meetings, the committee members moved closer to delivering recommendations to the TGC. During the meetings held via conference call, several topics were discussed including the use of national data related to phosphorus levels in septic tanks as well as the modeling of phosphorus in saturated and unsaturated soil conditions. Members Holder and Ippolito agreed to oversee the task of collecting data related to this matter.
With the primary ecological concern of the committee being phosphorus and its detrimental relationship to surface waters, some existing technologies related to phosphorous removal were examined and may receive some form of endorsement in final recommendations to the TGC.