When Rhoni Grimshaw and her husband rented a home on outer Quartermaster Harbor a year and a half ago, they were happy to find a place on the water and didn’t think much about the home’s sewage. But now, according to Grimshaw, they’ve moved out because they could no longer handle a septic system they found to be unpermitted and smelly.

“When the wind is blowing, it’s nauseating,” Grimshaw said last week before she moved out, showing a reporter the underground septic pit with a plastic lid about 3 feet from her back door. Plastic piping that appeared to come from a neighboring house went into the septic tank, as did some cables that prevented the lid from fully closing. When it rains heavily, she said, the tank overflows.

“You can see the live turds in there,” she said after opening the lid. “I don’t know how else to put it.”

Public health officials say the situation at Grimshaw’s rental is not uncommon on Vashon. And though Grimshaw’s main concern was the smell, King County is slowly but surely cracking down on old and ineffective septic systems on Vashon because of the pollution they send into the water. Recently there’s been a special emphasis on the 5-mile stretch of beach where Grimshaw lives, a highly polluted shoreline on southern Vashon Island that the county hopes can be opened to shellfishing if enough homeowners fix their systems. A similar effort is planned next for the Spring Beach neighborhood.

“Every county is responsible to do its part and get its part of Puget Sound back into compliance,” said Darrell Rodgers, manager of community environmental health in King County’s public health department. “We’ve made a commitment to the state and the tribe that we’re going to do this one way or another.”

Now, according to Rodgers, the situation at Quartermaster Harbor is improving. All but a few homes on the targeted shoreline have taken steps to repair their septic systems or install new ones. But four houses are still not in compliance, including three owned by Grimshaw’s former landlord, a California man named Buzz Delano.

“Unfortunately he’s not the only one that’s like that,” Rodgers said. “It’s a problem on the island. People don’t want to spend the money; they don’t want to invest. They’ve been breaking the law for so many decades, they don’t care.”

Indeed, for decades there has been little enforcement of King County’s septic code on Vashon, despite pressure from the Puyallup Tribe, which has shellfishing rights it cannot exercise because of the pollution.

The county’s current effort began in 2007, when it identified more than 250 homeowners at six island beaches with the worst pollution and told them they needed to either prove their systems were in order or begin the process of getting them inspected and repaired.

Since then, the county has performed extensive outreach, issuing regular notices and working one-on-one with homeowners in those areas, called Marine Recovery Areas (MRAs). However, in order to hasten the opening of Quartermaster Harbor to shellfishing, the county, working with the Puyallup Tribe and the state, narrowed its focus this year on the Quartermaster Harbor MRA and specifically those homes close enough to the water to cause shellfish closures because their systems are not working properly. Around February, King County began extra outreach to 18 homes that were still not in compliance, warning they could face fines and legal action.

The effort has been slow, officials say, as many homeowners live off-island, fail to communicate with the county and are reluctant to make the expensive repairs. But as of last week, seven of the homes had passed muster by proving their septic systems are not polluting. Eight more had made steps to fix their systems, either scheduling repair work or hiring someone to draw up designs.

“We consider that to be acceptable progress because they’re moving toward compliance,” Rodgers said. “Each property is different.”

As officials work with homeowners at Quartermaster Harbor, they are also shifting their attention to Spring Beach on Vashon’s south end. While Spring Beach has not yet been designated an MRA, Rodgers said the county is concerned that about a dozen beachfront homes there are sending raw sewage into the water. Wastewater from the homes, including septic waste, all feeds into one common pipe that empties far out in the water, Rodgers said. Testing by the state Department of Health has shown high levels of fecal contamination in the water, and that beach is also closed to shellfishing because of the pollution.

“It’s completely untreated, everything from the dishwasher to the shower, the kitchen sink and the toilet,” Rodgers said.

An effort to address the situation in the late 1990s was unsuccessful, but King County recently held a community meeting to talk with waterfront homeowners about the issue again. The county also obtained a small grant to work with them on finding solutions, Rodgers said, adding that new types of community septic systems might prove more affordable than separate systems. More meetings with homeowners are planned.

“Everything is on the table right now. … Hopefully we’ll be able to get the cooperation of everyone over time and avoid having to have this kind of thing like in Quartermaster Harbor,” Rodgers said.

As for the Quartermaster Harbor MRA, Rodgers said the county will keep track of those who have taken steps to repair their systems, knowing that sometimes homeowners fail to follow through on their plans. Officials hope to see all homes there either in compliance or in full enforcement — racking up fines and eventually be referred to the King County Prosecutor’s Office — by the end of the year. At that point, the state Department of Health will test the water to determine if the beach can be opened for shellfishing.

Delano, however, could be one of the county’s last holdouts, as he has consistently ignored the notices from the county about his three houses, Rodgers said. Should he continue to be unresponsive, he’ll soon face fines of $25 per day in the form of liens against his houses. Homeowners who don’t respond even after being fined will be referred to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, which will take legal action on a case-by-case basis.

Delano, reached at his home in California, said he would like to fix the septic systems at his properties but didn’t believe there were problems with smell, calling Grimshaw a disgruntled tenant. He claimed he had in fact submitted plans for new septic systems and even paid permitting fees. Rogers, however, said the heath department wasn’t aware of any such effort and Delano hadn’t communicated with anyone there.

The issue of septic pollution came up at a recent open house held by the county’s Community Service Area program and attended by county officials. During a public comment time, several people, including longtime real estate agent Emma Amiad, said they were concerned about the contamination caused by septic systems around the island.

Later in an interview, Amiad said she recalled the effort about 20 years ago to address the raw sewage being sent into the water at Spring Beach. At the time, she was on the board of the Vashon Park District, which has a park in the area. She called the county extremely slow to enforce its regulations.

“We can’t just talk about wanting to clean the environment and Puget Sound, which is heavily polluted, and not do anything,” she said. “We need to put our money where our mouth is.”

Rodgers, with King County, agreed that the effort has been slow but said recently the county got approval to bring on a full-time septic inspector dedicated to working on Vashon, something that should help officials keep moving forward with their enforcement.

Currently, 257 homes on Vashon are part of designated MRAs, and 195 of those homes, or 76 percent, are in compliance. More MRAs will likely be designated in the future.

“Because our resources are limited, we can only do a concentrated effort in one area at a time,” he said.