A judge in Island County Superior Court approved an emergency action March 29 after county staff discovered that a septic tank had failed and raw sewage was flowing onto the surface of a Camano Island property where at least a dozen people are living, including two children, according to the Island County Prosecutor’s Office.

The warrant of abatement gives the people living in tents, campers and an illegally converted garage on the garbage-strewn property seven days to leave. The Sheriff’s Office is authorized to remove any tenants who aren’t out by the deadline.

Island County Human Services has been contacting tenants since December and offering relocation assistance, according to the prosecutor’s office. Nine households have contacted the resource center.

Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Pete Smiley argued in court papers that David Muresan’s Crestview Drive property poses a “grave threat to human health” based on a new inspection.

Muresan has asserted that he was helping poor and homeless people by providing them inexpensive shelter.

Island County Superior Court Judge Carolyn Cliff agreed and approved the warrant of abatement, as well as an amended injunction that gives Muresan deadlines for correcting unlawful conditions, “such as a failing septic system, dangerous electrical work, unpermitted construction, accumulated junk and derelict vehicles and the illegal renting to tenants,” according to a statement on the case from the prosecutor’s office.

The judge is also permitting county staff to enter the property to warn tenants of the danger, inspect the conditions and monitor Muresan’s progress in complying with the orders.

Court records indicate that Muresan has a long history of ignoring orders from county departments related to the property. In December, Smiley filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that the code violations are so serious that the property is a “public nuisance.”

On March 14, Cliff agreed and issued an injunction that sets deadlines for Muresan to correct myriad code violations.

But then on March 21, staff from the county Health Department inspected the property and discovered that the septic system had completely failed, creating “extraordinary dangers,” a county official wrote.

Documents state that Muresan had tried to fix an overtaxed septic system with gravity trenches and ended up creating a situation in which raw effluent was running onto a muddy driveway, then flowing down to a converted garage and a children’s play area. In addition, the RVs were directly discharging excrement into shallow holes.

The effluent covers a “massive area” and was being tracked into the homes and RVs, documents state. Water samples taken in various parts of the property showed widespread fecal coliform contamination; one sample showed levels more than 1,000 times higher than the level which would require a public beach to be closed.

Muresan allegedly ignored the court order directing him to remove tenants within 30 days; he accepted rent from one tenant, asked the others for rent and advertised and recruited a new tenant, court documents state.

“Failure to comply with the injunction may lead to Mr. Muresan being held in contempt of court, prosecuted for criminal contempt or fined,” the prosecutor wrote.