Some rules are just bad. Hey, I’m not talking about college football’s excessive-celebration penalty. Take Washington State’s new septic-inspection mandates.

Bruce Seltveit (Bruce’s Septic Service) is a great guy, and I enjoy seeing him around town in the Safeway or the Oak Harbor Post Office. But Bruce showing up at my house every year — even every three years — to check a perfectly fine septic system is the equivalent of an excessive-inspection penalty.

The Seattle Times’ Mr. HandyPerson (Mark Hetts in an Oct. 17, 2004 article) said “if you don’t use a lot of caustic liquid products or pour toxic things down the drain into the septic system, thereby killing off helpful bacteria that consume the solids in the septic, you could go a lifetime without having to pump out the septic tank or add any additional treatments.” An engineering friend told me that a retired couple living in a small house could go 10 years or more between septic system inspections without worrying.

Hetts summed it up perfectly: “Follow your instincts: Leave a problem-free septic tank alone.”

E. Busbee

Oak Harbor