Santa Cruz County Environmental Health Services Errors will cost my Family $70K

Not fishing related, but important. If you plan to apply for Santa Cruz building permits, please beware of Santa Cruz County's incompetence.

I (Matt) am a hydrographer with the U.S Geological Survey at the Wrigley Building on Santa Cruz’s West Side. My wife Chelsey is a Registered Nurse at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz. We purchased our 3-bedroom 2-bathroom home in Aptos in April of 2016, where we currently reside with our 2-year-old daughter Isla. During escrow, a septic inspection revealed that the septic tank needed to be replaced. Contingent upon our purchase of this home, an agreement was reached with the seller which guaranteed that the seller would replace the septic system legal, up to code, and permitted by Santa Cruz County. The seller agreed and hired a licensed septic construction company to install a brand new “conventional” septic tank. Santa Cruz County Environmental Health department (EHS) authorized and inspected that work and issued the permit. The system is currently functioning normally.

In February of 2020 a large Douglas-fir tree fell onto our home, destroying the outdoor deck and uninsulated modular “sun-room”. We applied for Santa Cruz County permits to repair the deck and to replace the sunroom with solid insulated walls. While reviewing these plans, EHS decided they issued the 2016 permit in error, and are now unwilling to issue ANY permits unless we first agree to replace our 2016 septic tank with an Enhanced Treatment System. This is the same septic system EHS inspected, approved, and permitted in 2016. They are essentially rescinding their previously approved permit, and holding our repairs hostage until we fix their mistakes.  I don't understand how this is legal, or moral. The replacement system will cost over $70K-which is more than my insurance payout to fix my house, and the current system works perfectly.  This is putting my family into a dire financial situation from which we may not be able to recover.

My family is getting screwed over by the county to the tune of $70K (which is more than our insurance adjustment to repair our home).  We are now taking a home equity loan just to replace the (functioning) septic system in order to get the permits to repair our home. Since  February of 2020, we have lived with an active toddler and a shattered and dangerous deck and a leaky moldy dining room because the county is holding our repairs hostage to a retrospective septic upgrade they should have mandated in 2016 when they approved the existing system.   I believe the people of Santa Cruz have a right to know how the county does business.

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Dang, that is terrible... So sorry for your situation they are putting your family in. 

Fight this all the way! 
Same folks said my old Landlords had to put in the same Enhancement System.  The concern was the septic might impact the groundwater but we get our water from a spring at a significantly higher elevation.  The system also needed 24 hours electricity and PG&E hasn't restored a single power pole after the CZU Fire.  They relented in the end.
We had a suspicion that the treatment system was suggested solely to make the Inspector look better to her agency/superiors. 

Of over 900 dwellings destroyed, less than 50 rebuild permits have been issued to those impacted from this fire. 

I'm sorry you're dealing with this

I live up in the hills, just on the Santa Clara county side, and it's not much better here. The county inspectors tend to treat homeowners as their enemy which, predictably, results in a lot of work getting done without permits.

We're just up the hill from Lexington Reservoir, which supplies water to Los Gatos. As a result, the inspectors are hyperactive wrt septic systems. The irony is that we have a septic tank, but don't really have a septic system (i.e., no leach field). I had to dig part of it up once, and it seems the entire leach field collapsed eons ago. Amazingly it works just fine, as the 3' long pipe that comes out of the septic tank ends on mountains of fill dirt that was used to construct our drive.

I suspect that one of these days, the county will require us to get one of the fancy septic systems that you mention. I've heard that there is a substantial annual inspection fee with those, and that might be part of what is motivating the inspector in your case. Inspectors probably get a promotion if they can rake in more money...

Santa Cruz County is Bad! I have to pull permits "in County areas" to install windows and doors. In City limits and in Capitola I don't need permits.

I think somewhere, somehow, there is more to this story than we are being told. You can’t just toss a septic system into the ground. It requires contractors, testing, inspections, certification, etc. No legit contractor is going to do a septic install in any way except to code because of liable, and because they could lose their license. Whatever the code was in 2016, that is what the contractor did. If the system was not to code the contractor would know it. Something more had to happen for a septic system that is $70k from being up to code to get installed.

How does a septic system, any septic system, cost $70k? A friend is going though something similar to you, just purchased a home, the septic was overlooked during the inspection phase, got burned for the cost of a new system. Cost for a totally all-new everything, starting from scratch, is $18k. What is the extra $52k for that your septic system requires?

How does a septic system, any septic system, cost $70k? A friend is going though something similar to you, just purchased a home, the septic was overlooked during the inspection phase, got burned for the cost of a new system. Cost for a totally all-new everything, starting from scratch, is $18k. What is the extra $52k for that your septic system requires?

I don't know if $70k is reasonable, but at $18k, I'm sure your friend's septic was not an ETS system. Here is a document from Santa Cruz county that describes some of the options for such a system, none of which would be cheap:

https://www.scceh.org/Portals/6/Env_Health/LAMP/AppDEnhancedTreatmentSystemsRegulationsEHS-28711-14-19.pdf

Since this document is dated 2019, I'd guess that code requirements changed since the current system was installed, and to approve any new work, everything has to be brought up to current code.

Composting Toilet?

I think somewhere, somehow, there is more to this story than we are being told.

There is indeed much more to the story. Please allow me to elaborate.

EHS cites two reasons preventing them from issuing the permits necessary to repair the damage caused by the tree incident. These are the presence of an unpermitted garage built over the leach field which is a code violation, and that the current system is only approved for a 2 bedroom home.
 
I have county documents which prove that the county has been aware of the garage since 2004 and subsequently issued at least 10 permits, including upgrades to the very same garage now being called unpermitted. According to EHS’s current logic, none of these permits should have been issued without first upgrading to an Enhanced Treatment System. Furthermore, I can show you that EHS knowingly altered the 2016 septic application to show the home as having 2 bedrooms instead of 3, and then approving the septic application for a 2 bedroom thus creating this discrepancy. But the question they refuse to answer is why wasn't any of this brought up in 2016 when they oversaw the replacement of the tank. WHY? The only two explanations are incompetence or fraud.

The Bedroom Count

I have documents showing EHS acknowledging the home as having 3 bedrooms in 2002 and again in 2004, as well as and the Planning Department acknowledging the home as having 3 bedrooms in 2004.
On 04/04/2016 EHS received the application to replace the septic tank. This application was submitted accurately showing the home as having 3 bedrooms. Then on 04/12/2016, EHS staff altered the application to show the home as having 2-bedrooms instead of 3. EHS then approved that permit with information known to be inaccurate. Gail Mackey confirms this on an 05/25/2021 email when she explains "In 2016, a Tank Only Septic repair permit was submitted for this parcel, showing the SFD as a 3bedroom. As the prior septic permit from 1972 that was paired with a building plan was for a 2-bedroom home, and no septic upgrade permits and building plans for bedroom additions had been submitted since that time, this permit was also processed as a subsidized septic repair permit for an existing 2 bedroom home. That is why the 3 is crossed out and a 2 is written in the bedroom count on the permit page. The permit was submitted for a nun-permittable bedroom count. No floorplan was submitted with this septic repair permit, and there was no way for the EH department to determine what the existing, if unpermitted, bedroom count was at this parcel. The legal bedroom count of this parcel was determined to be 2at the time the 2016 Tank only permit was submitted".
By changing application bedroom EHS singlehandedly caused this conflict, and essentially placed a “financial landmine” at the doorway to any future permits to cross their desk.

The Garage

EHS cites the unpermitted garage built over the leach field as the reason to rescind the 2016 septic permit and deny any future permit applications regardless of their nature. They do not however, explain why they authorized that septic replacement in the first place considering these alleged code violations. A look at the permit history shows the county has not only been aware of the “unpermitted” garage since it was constructed in 2004, but has authorized upgrades to that garage, a bedroom expansion, deck repairs, the sunroom installation, the 2016 septic replacement, and more.  Permit 140304 issued on 03/23/2005 specifically mentions “No change in room count. Results in 3 bedroom, 2 bath, and living room SFD with decks and attached garage”. 140304-2 issued on 09/21/2005 authorized “redesign of garage foundation including adding 1.5 ft to pony wall”. 
Please remember that the critical infrastructure repairs we are proposing today have NOTHING to do with septic system and are immediately needed to address major health and safety concerns in our home.

The appropriate time to mandate this septic upgrade was in April of 2016, and it almost happened until EHS falsified the permit application thus creating this conflict. Santa Cruz County cannot find the integrity to own its mistakes and allow us to repair our home without replacing our functioning and “permitted” septic system. The cost of this Enhanced Treatment System is greater than our insurance settlement. Our insurance company has made it clear they will not fund the replacement of a “permitted” and functioning septic system which has nothing to do with the nature of the claim. Santa Cruz County is forcing us to use our insurance settlement to replace a “permitted” and functioning septic system, with no consideration for our critical health and safety issues. This is our second winter with a roof that leaks when it rains and a sliding glass door that opens to the broken deck with a 20-foot drop to the hillside below. We have a two-year-old daughter and the thought of her falling off that broken deck scares me every single day. How are we supposed to pay for these essential repairs when the county is holding them ransom for an expensive septic upgrade? An upgrade EHS has had countless opportunities to mandate in the past. EHS is imposing a financial burden from which it will take many years recover. Is this how Santa Cruz County does business?

It has also been recommended that I reach out to my local Supervisor Zach Friend. I composed an email to him explaining the situation. He had his assistant call me on the phone. He sounded very sympathetic and concerned and took lots of detailed information. I forwarded him supporting documents.  He (assistant. Not Zach Friend) called back a week later very apologetic. He explained that Zach "did not want to get involved". 

As far as the cost of an Enhanced Treatment system goes. We are working with Hogan Land Services. Being perched up on a steep hill, our home will need a very custom design. Hogan recommended a final estimated price of $58,000 to $60,000 all said and done. This includes peculation testing, design, permits, and construction.
 

sounds like it may be cheaper in the long run to talk to an attorney.

sounds like it may be cheaper in the long run to talk to an attorney.

That is probably the way to go. However, once a lawyer is involved, all communication will have to go thru the lawyer, the county will undoubtedly dig in their heels, and even if the county eventually backs down, they'll take their sweet time to do so.

As to the question "Is this how Santa Cruz County does business?", I can say, yes it is. Quite a few of our neighbors are in Santa Cruz county, and we hear a fair number of permit-related horror stories.

We did hire an attorney. Other than explaining the situation clearly (something EHS was unwilling or able to do), the lawyer was not very effective. He basically explained that since we do have code violations (garage over the leach field), the county has the legal right to take their position. While they should have caught this in 2016, the county does not guarantee their work and is not held to account for their errors.  As far as the suspicious bedroom count issue goes, the lawyer agrees it is suspect, but is nearly impossible to prove. So basically we get fucked. 

My reason for posting this is to serve as a warning to SC residence. Get the county involved at your own risk. Whether our situation was caused by fraud or incompetence is up for debate, but we are being held to account for their failures.  I will think twice before EVER letting the county get involved anymore of my projects.  The safest thing I can do is  hide their own shity work from themselves for fear they might question their own work. EHS has made it clear they do not recognize the legality of our third bedroom, for which I have a permit. During our conversations they attempted to dissolve that permit too. They are dangerous, reckless, and unpredictable and I recommend people steer clear of that shit show.

I feel your pain.

Before we bought our house (about 15 years ago), the owner claimed it was all permitted and showed us documents from the county (Santa Clara) that clearly stated "permitted for sale". So, I called the county and asked about the house. They told me a 400 ft^2 house was permitted. I told them that it's actually a lot bigger than that. After shuffling thru a bunch of papers, they decided it was permitted at 800 ft^2. In reality, it's almost 2x that size, and I have no idea what would happen if they came up here to inspect something.

My handyman neighbor has one of the most beautiful houses in the neighborhood. The county hassled him endlessly about a retaining wall (on the back of his lot where it would affect absolutely nothing if it failed), his septic system, and a bunch of other stuff. He fixed the septic, but somehow managed to piss them off in the process, so as of now, he'd have to tear down 2/3rds of his house to satisfy the code Nazis. That 2/3rds was built about half a century ago, which was 20 or 30 years before he moved in, and it's far better constructed than half of the houses (many are really just glorified shacks) in this neighborhood.

Our nearest neighboring house sold about 3 years ago, with some known issues (mostly septic related). The new owner spent a couple of years trying to navigate the permit process and finally gave up, and put up an essentially new house. They did a little bit of grading on the drive, and that was somehow detected by the county. Now they are in deep doo-doo.

As annoying as those sorts of things are, they are not the worst of it. The thing that annoys me most about the permit process is that there is little or no consistency. The inspector can override almost anything, if he so desires. As a result, there are all kinds of flakey things around the neighborhood that have been grandfathered in, while solid, well-built things can't make it. Whether the system is actually corrupt or not, it sure leaves the impression of being so.

The bottom line is that here in Santa Clara county, wrt permits, you're damned it you do and damned if you don't. And, yes, I've heard enough to believe that Santa Cruz county is even worse.