County Commissioner Greg Brotherton’s musical ode to outhouses never got a public airing during the last meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Health.

Brotherton, nearly famous in these parts for bringing in a banjo or six-stringed sidekick to strum songs of support for favored causes during county commissioner meetings, tried to take his act on the road last week during the health board meeting
Nov. 18.

Videoconferencing technology, however, was having none of it. Brotherton’s attempts to share a privy-promoting video via YouTube went down the drain, so to speak.

In recent weeks, the health board has been looking at possible changes to the county’s compliance code, which includes sanitation, solid waste management, on-site sewage systems and other areas. Deliberations and potential approval of an ordinance setting out revisions are expected in December.

Regulations under review have included enforcement provisions for basic sanitation for people who live in recreational vehicles, tents, yurts, and other non-permitted residential structures.

That also includes rules on outhouses, commonly known as pit privies.

Public health officials have noted there’s a health risk for residents who are using unapproved drain fields, pit privies and other methods of handling sewage.

Jefferson County stopped issuing permits for pit privies in June 1988.

But Brotherton noted at the health board’s recent meeting that everyone who isn’t hooked up to a sewer system can afford to install a septic system.

“I think it’s an equity issue. I think there’s an opportunity for it,” he told his fellow health board members.

Other counties in Washington still issue permits for pit privies, he added.

To make his point, Brotherton tried to cue a satire song video he had made and posted on YouTube.

“Oh no. You can’t hear it,” he said as his music video — which featured the commissioner holding a guitar, but backed with Brotherton superimposed twice into the scene, with a banjo and an electric guitar, and his daughter, Sage, on drums — sat frozen onscreen.

“This is very important,” Brotherton added as he struggled to get the videoconferencing software to share the video.

Others in the GoToMeeting chuckled. 

“Do the live version!” somebody shouted.

Brotherton tried again without success.

The song was called “Permit Pit Privy,” he said, and was set to the tune “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones.

“It was excellent,” he said of his music video.

Brotherton then tried again, pausing at one point to ask others in the online meeting to talk amongst themselves.

“I’m failing with it,” he said at last after giving up on getting the video to play.

In an acknowledgement that you can’t always get what you want, Brotherton finally told board members, “I’ll send it to you.”

NO OUTHOUSE ENCORES

Brotherton asked if anyone had any objection to a repeal of restrictions on pit privies.

Health Board Chair Sheila Westerman quickly called to close the door on any outhouses.

“This ban was implemented because of the realization that it is impossible to enforce,” Westerman said.

She noted that state law requires privies to be kept clean, fly proof, and not drain into waters of the state.

There’s a reason why such structures are no longer permitted in Jefferson County, Westerman added.

“We simply did not then, and do not now, have the resources to enforce these critical environmental protections. 

“Also allowing pit toilets outright is a veritable invitation for their creation and communicates governmental approval of them to our citizens,” Westerman added. “Instead we should continue to find ways to help people treat human waste in a safe and sanitary fashion.”

Protecting the public’s health and the health of the environment is part of the health board’s mission statement, she added.

“Secondly, I believe it is a mistake to offer pit toilets as a means of addressing our affordable housing crisis,” she said. “Quite simply, people deserve better.”

“I cannot accept that this is the best we can do,” Westerman said.

The county’s population will continue to grow, she added, and the Northwest will continue to attract people fleeing the effects of global warming. 

More residents translates into additional environmental impacts.

“Who can argue that more pit toilets is a good thing?” Westerman asked.

The county’s onsite sewage program was virtually nonexistent in 1997, she continued, “now it is exemplary.”

“Let’s continue to move forward and not go back,” she said.

POSSIBLE REVENUE STREAM

Brotherton, however, said permitting pit privies would mean more money for the county’s General Fund.

It would also add an incentive for people who already have pit privies to get permits. Keeping outhouses illegal does the opposite, he added.

“If they are off the grid and not permitting, it will encourage people to do the wrong thing,” he said.

“I know someone that lives very close to me, who uses one and has used one for years. This is a professional, two professionals, in the family,” Brotherton said.

He said the couple doesn’t have permits for their home because county approval would first be needed for an onsite sewage system. That’s meant limited future potential for their property.

“We are depriving these citizens of the ability to access the equity in their property because they can’t get loans for it. We are depriving them of the ability to sell their house in a reasonable way and we are creating a higher floor for home ownership,” Brotherton said.

Brotherton said he didn’t expect a boom in outhouses, and said they’d be welcomed by those starting a simpler life in the county. “I don’t think there’s going to be a thousand pit privies.”

Allowing them, Brotherton added, could help people find a place to live.

“We have hundreds of undeveloped rural residential properties right now that we could open to the kinds of people who want to come homestead on some land,” he said.

Maybe they use a pit privy for a few years, he said, while they save up to install a septic system.

GROUNDWATER WORRIES

Board Member David Sullivan said he was worried about groundwater impacts, and noted that Jefferson County has unique hydrology would make permitting expensive.

“We have extremely variable water movement under our lands. And to know that it’s OK to site a pit toilet somewhere, you would basically have to do a hydrogeologic study and you would have to go through a lot of things to show that it’s OK,” Sullivan said.

It was a false notion, he added, to think the environment would be protected while costs would go down.

Sullivan wondered about people who were coming to the county who could afford to buy five acres of land but not a septic system.

“They need to put their money into being safe,” he said.

Jefferson County, he added, has been one of the most progressive communities in protecting the environment and water resources.

“I think it’s a step backward,” Sullivan said.

Board Member Kate Dean said her opinion was mixed. Dean said she knew many people with pit privies who have operated them safely for a long time.

“And in some ways it’s better to permit them, because you know where they are and you can monitor them,” Dean said.

Dean said she expects to see significant changes in the way waste is treated.

“What used to be the gold standard in the Victorian era, we actually understand now is fairly problematic,” Dean added.

Sullivan, though, questioned the idea that existing pit privies are safe.

He also challenged the notion that people who already have pit privies actually realize the impact their facilities have on the environment.

That requires knowledge of where and how the wastewater discharge eventually flows through the ground, and how it impacts other groundwater sources.

“They probably haven’t done the work to identify where the water discharge goes,” Sullivan said, and how it flows.

“‘Oh, looks OK from up here,’” he said. “You need to look at what’s underground.”

That said, Sullivan said he supported other approaches, such as composting toilets.

“That’s a different thing than a pit privy,” he said.

Westerman again underscored her opposition to permitting pit privies.

“I think this would be a disaster for what we have accomplished in this county,” she said. 

The discussion ended at last when Brotherton asked to repeal the board’s policy on pit privies, but his move failed for lack of a second.

THE LOST SONG

Brotherton’s musical take on outhouses featured rewritten lyrics for “Paint It Black”:

“I see a pit privy, I want it permitted

If the soil conditions deem it safe, let’s permit it

Say no to pit privies, it just pushes them underground

Saying yes to pit privies, it helps the General Fund

I see a septic system it costs 30 grand

We need to find equitable use of land...”

The song can be viewed on YouTube at www.mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/BROTHERTON?projector=1.