The Department of Profes-sional and Occupational Regulation Onsite System Professional licensure program became effective July 1. It requires conventional and alternative instal-lers, soil evaluators, and operators to be licensed.
The code requires operators of alternative systems exceeding 10,000 gpd to have a wastewater works operator license and alternative onsite sewage system operator license. Professionals with valid licenses or certificates in other jurisdictions are now required to also pass the Virginia examination. However, individuals holding a state Depart-ment of Health (DoH) soil evaluator certification valid on June 30, 2009, may apply for an alternative soil evaluator license. The rule is at www.townhall.state.va.us.
A law requiring statewide management of alternative onsite systems will not become effective until the DoH publishes the final rules. As this could take a year, Loudoun County Health Department implemented its own ordinance, and then advised 1,200 homeowners with nonconventional systems to have them inspected by July 1, 2009.
Inspectors are required to attend a short training session and submit standardized reports. The Virginia Onsite Wastewater Recycling Asso-ciation expects to learn more about the operation and maintenance of alternative systems from these inspections than from any other activity conducted nationally.
The state is in the final stage of creating sewage handling and disposal regulations that will establish minimum standards for collecting, transporting, treating, and disposing of wastewater.
Iowa
The governor line-item vetoed the attempt to delay implementation of the time of transfer requirements for onsite system inspections. The program became effective on July 1. It requires onsite system inspection for any occupied building before transfer of ownership.
Inspectors must have two years in the onsite industry and have experience with installation design, inspections, and pumping. They must also pass an inspection course. Certification renewal requires 12 hours of continuing education.
Georgia
A bill reintroduced from 2008 prohibits new onsite systems in counties with more than 70,000 sewer connections or more than 200 such accounts per square mile of total area served. Residences on lots smaller than three acres within those restrictions would have to disconnect their onsite systems and connect to a sewer.
Three ordinances required by regulations from the state Environ-mental Protection Division and Metro North Georgia Water Planning District require homeowners within 300 feet of a sewer to tap into it if their onsite systems fail. The rules will condemn homes as unlivable if lots are too small for new systems and no sewer is nearby.
Florida
The Marion County Commission passed an ordinance forcing new single-family homes to connect to sewers if within 200 feet of the property. The rule forces more than 90,000 septic tank users in the county to do the same, but gives them a year within notification to comply. It also requires new and replacement systems to be low dosing, and homeowners to have their septic tanks tested every five years.
New Jersey
The New Jersey Pinelands Com-mission is proposing that rural boroughs oversee septic tank inspec-tions every three years instead of the Cape May County Board of Health. The commission, focusing on leaking onsite systems to curb high counts of waterborne bacteria that close public beaches, states that enforcement of the inspections and pumping is spotty.
More than 2,000 homeowners in West Milford face fines of $100 to $1,000 a day if they do not have their septic tanks pumped within three months. The action is part of an ordinance that took effect in January, requiring homeowners to have their tanks inspected every three years by a licensed contractor registered with the town. Once presented with the receipt, the town will issue free permits for the tanks.
