An Update and An Apology

Hello Everyone :). The effluent testing of Phase I systems has been completed. The results are in but cannot be released until all the involved homeowners give their permission. We expect to release them publically at the Septic Summit.

The Septic Summit the Council Requested is scheduled for June 29th, 2009 at 6:30pm in the City Council Chambers. Please tell your neighbors, your friends, your families, your family’s families, anyone you can think of where and when the summit will be and bring them all along. The more the merrier, that’s our motto!

For anyone who is curious, the SGS sampling process is a formal Quality Assurance/Quality Control Program as required by the state of Alaska and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). A copy of their Quality Assurance Plan is available upon request. All the samples and sampling methods were laboratory certified and the lab report is in conformance with the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program. For more information about their process, contact SGS labs directly at (907) 562-2343 or visit their website: http://www.us.sgs.com.

King Bee Equipment, the Phase I finishing up and Phase II mound system contractor, met with Lanning Engineering and the City of Valdez on Thursday June 18th to look at sites and propose a schedule. The preliminary schedule document is only for planning and will likely change as soon as they start construction (based on King Bee’s experiences here). King Bee is working on both a construction schedule and a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP). Both documents are intended to be “living documents” updated weekly or whenever there is a need. The preliminary schedule discussed is as follows:

Proposed Schedule
June 16-21 begin stock piling materials in snow lots
June 22 Begin Phase I
June 23: BK 5 LT 13
June 24: BK 5 LT 13
June 25: BK 5 LT 11 & BK 5 LT 13
June 26: BK 5 LT 2
June 27: BK 1 LT 5, BK 1 LT 2A & USS 5625 LT 3
June 28: USS 3939 LT 1A & USS 3939 LT 4
June 29: BK 9 18 and BK 9 LT 20
June 30: BK 8 LT 21 & BK 9 LT 4
July 1: BK 7 LT 15, BK 8 LT 3 & BK 8 LT 7
July 2: BK 4 LT 6 & BK 4 LT 8
July 3: BK 7 LT 11
July 3rd Finish Phase I work

July 5th Begin Phase II work
July 6-9: BK 9 LT 1
July 9-14: LT 3 Nordic
July 12-16: LT 2 Nordic
July 17-21: BK 7 LT 8
July 21-25: BK 5 LT 17A
July 25-30: BK 5 LT 10
August 1-5: BK 3 LT 9
August 2-7: BK 3 LT 8

King Bee has told us they already have a few small changes to this proposed schedule before construction begins. We will post the revisions as soon as they are sent to us.

Finally, a concern was voiced at the June 15th City Council Meeting about the tone of some of the things written in this blog. The City of Valdez apologizes whole heartedly to anyone who took offense to anything written in the blog. It is intended to function as a communication tool and to give homeowners and Valdez residents insight into the daily and weekly processes that come from implementing a program as large and, paradoxically, as deeply personal as this one is. Sometimes we light heartedly poke fun at things to break the tension and show our side to some of the issues, but our intent in these paragraphs has always been to make people smile. We have never intended to insult anyone or cause offense. Please accept our apology and give us another chance. In the future we will try harder to keep communication at a maximum and side comment to a minimum.

And as always, we invite all Savvy Septic readers to add comments to whatever we post here. A symposium should be many voices, not just one or two. You can post your thoughts and ideas by scrolling to the bottom of each blog and clicking on the number of comments listed in italics. You can also navigate on the right-hand side bar to just above the picture of the AdvanTex tanks on a truck, where the Blog Archive lists each blog posted by month. Click on the blog you want to comment on and if you scroll down to the bottom, there is a text box you can write your comments in and post them. We look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, Savvy Septic readers, keep the Septic Sentiment flowing!

PS. Please take an moment to read through all the documents posted to the City of Valdez website concerning Phase I, Phase II, City Council agenda statements, Oversight Group meeting notes, Lesson’s Learned, etc. This documentation provides a much more solid base of information to which the Savvy Septic Blog details compliment.