Panel Assailed Over Approval of Septic Tank

City officials are upset about a California Regional Water Quality Control Board decision to allow a septic tank to be installed at a proposed board and care home.

The board had initially voted to require a treatment plant at the planned Claremont Board and Care facility on West Baseline Road. But after complaints from the owner that a plant could cost up to $100,000, the board voted 5 to 3 this week to allow a septic tank.

Claremont officials insist that having a septic system means the facility will be allowed to drain a swimming pool’s worth of sewage into the ground water each week.

“We are appalled that an organization that has as its primary objective to protect California water quality would approve something that does just the opposite,” said Claremont Mayor Suzan Smith.