Ventura County’s Refusal of Septic Permit Clogs Couple’s Plans to Build Dream Home

With its killer view and location above one of Ojai’s toniest neighborhoods, the one-acre lot Lee Rennacker bought two years ago seemed a great spot to build his dream home.

But that was before, in the sanitized language of septic-tank bureaucrats, the effluent hit the fan. Because the land sits largely on bedrock -- a geology inhospitable to septic tank systems -- Rennacker has been unable to win a permit for a standard sewage unit.

Ventura County planning officials have refused Rennacker’s offer to install a higher-tech system that several cities and counties across the state are embracing as environmentally superior.

Rennacker and his wife, Karen McMahon, say they are perplexed about why the county is being so stubborn. All they want to do is build their family home and, finally, get out of their Oak View rental, the couple said.

“The traditional septic will be obsolete in a year,” said Rennacker, 52, a California Department of Transportation engineer. “It’s not fair to citizens like me who are renting a house to have to just wait, while construction costs go up, until they get around to approving this new system.”

Ventura County officials contend the technology used in so-called advanced treatment units is still too untested. And they say the systems are essentially mini-sewage plants that are too complex for an average homeowner to maintain.

Rennacker said he was told that Ventura County doesn’t care what other counties accept.

“They said ‘We don’t do this and we don’t want to be the test case for new technology.’ But this has been around for 20 years,” Rennacker said.

Gary Hails, who oversees septic permits for Ventura County, did not return phone calls and his supervisor, Tom Berg, was unavailable for comment.

But other county leaders say a cautious approach is necessary. When sewage systems fail, untreated waste can flow into creeks, rivers and gutters, endangering public health.

“It’s a complex issue and I don’t have all the information to take a public position on it yet,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve Bennett, whose district includes Rennacker’s property. “But I can understand why our planning staff is being cautious because they have a responsibility to the public, particularly if sewage water will be surfacing.”

Septic systems work by breaking down solid materials in a large underground tank and filtering wastewater through an adjacent dirt and gravel drainage field. But Rennacker’s land is too rocky and steep for proper percolation, making a standard septic system all but impossible.

The alternative he is proposing uses injected oxygen and an internal filter to cleanse liquid waste before it is dispersed to the leach field. Malibu, Santa Barbara and other coastal cities have begun requiring such advanced treatment units as an environmentally superior alternative to standard septic systems.

Legislation approved in 2000 makes the higher-tech systems mandatory for all new installations in coastal areas, or to replace those that are leaking improperly treated waste into groundwater. State Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), who sponsored the bill, said its intent was to set statewide standards for septic systems.

“People literally have been flushing their toilets into the ocean,” Jackson said. “The bill really was designed to set some criteria to set standards and enforcement for on-site disposal.”

But the law does not apply to sewage systems farther inland, Jackson said.

Bob Toth faces the same dilemma as Rennacker. Toth, 69, a Ventura electrical contractor, wants to build a home on land he owns near Thomas Aquinas College. But the steep property has failed septic tests and the county has refused to consider an alternative, Toth said.

Toth believes the county’s strong slow-growth sentiment is behind its unwillingness to accept systems that would turn previously undevelopable lots into prime residential acreage.

“As a contractor, I have to deal with cities and counties all the time. Ventura County is notoriously tough,” Toth said. “Most cities try to work with you. But this county continuously throws roadblocks at you.”

At least one county supervisor, Judy Mikels, thinks the county should analyze the possibility of an urgency exemption for those hoping to build a single home.

“What I’d like to do is to get the board to authorize some kind of quick study right now,” Mikels said. “I don’t know if we have the staff to deal with it. But I really hate to have people sitting there in limbo.”

Rennacker and McMahon plan to stand their ground. On a recent trip to their lot with daughters Alissa, 13, and Austin, 11, McMahon showed where the house would be situated, overlooking the Ojai Valley.

“Look around,” she said. “It’s so magnificent.”