"…our story of how the 6,500 people living in an unincorporated area in the poorest county of Oregon brought down the special interests won a battle for the little guy."I wrote an article for the
Mother Earth News about a year ago, with my assessment of a huge scam being presently perpetrated on homeowners: that they need to "upgrade" gravity-powered septic systems with high-tech, expensive systems.
Article here.A few days ago I got this letter from people in a small town in Oregon about the article helping them turn things in a more practical (and ecological) direction. I hope the ball keeps rolling and small towns, as well as individual homeowners, push forward with sensible and workable solutions.
Note: An experienced engineer working on a national level with high-tech systems recently told me he estimates that conventional gravity-fed septic systems work in 80% of the soils in America.
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Dear Lloyd Kahn,
I just wrote the following letter to the
Mother Earth News and I want to send a copy to you as well. Your article was instrumental in our victorious 2 1/2 year battle with Deschutes County in central Oregon. It was a dog fight, but we finally won.!!
Dear Editor,
I am writing as a representative from our Citizens Action Group in La Pine, OR. La Pine is one of four federal Demonstration Project sites that was chosen to study nitrogen in our water supply, and to encourage the installation of complicated, expensive, and for the most part, unnecessary treatment systems. A year ago in your Feb./March 2008 issue, you featured a very informative article entitled "The Truth About Septic Systems" by Lloyd Kahn. Our citizens group had been objecting to these systems for over a year by then. That article helped us to understand the dynamics of the push to mandate the studies and installation of these systems as a money making venture on the part of county staffs and installers of these systems. You very kindly sent us some extra copies of your magazine and gave us permission to quote the article in our organizing efforts. Despite the almost 100% objection of the citizens, the County passed a law they called "Local Rule" to mandate the installation of these systems.
We did not give up. We collected 2,400 valid signatures on a petition to recall the Local Rule and forced it to be a ballot measure to be voted on March 10, 2009. The county staff, the local newspapers, and the big money interests all united against us. We found it impossible to get them to acknowledge the truths so clearly detailed in the
Mother Earth article, or even to publish information from the USGS study that countered their arguments. So, we went to meeting after meeting of just about every organization or group we could think of who has an interest in water and the environment.
The votes were counted on March 10 - and we won by a wide margin! The Local Rule was repealed. Now we will be able to work with the Department of Environmental Quality to create a comprehensive sustainable plan to insure the quality of our drinking water in Central Oregon. Mr Kahn's article was very empowering for our grassroots organization, and we are very grateful to him and to your magazine for your support.
Since this recall could have national implications, we are wondering if Mr. Kahn or one of your writers would be interested in telling our story of how the 6,500 people living in an unincorporated area in the poorest county of Oregon brought down the special interests won a battle for the little guy.
If so, just let me know, and we will be as helpful as we can.
Thank you so much.
Pamela Cosmo, secretary of CAG, La Pine, OR.
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