A $3.14 billion sewer debt may force new developments and residents with failed onsite systems in Jefferson County to hook to sewers. The county, home to Birmingham and 658,000 residents, faces the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. It borrowed heavily to pay for sewer improvements ordered by the federal government, and then a sewer-bond refinancing collapsed more than three years ago during the credit crisis.

New York

An engineering team inspected 760 single-family homes in Bridgeport to find onsite systems and establish locations for grinder pumps as part of a $14 million sewer project. Homeowners must tie to the grinder pumps at a cost of $35 to $45 per foot of pipe. Besides paying the debt service, about $280 per year per residence, they also must pay a $73 short-lived asset fee to cover replacement of the pumps, and $721 per year for sewer and pump station maintenance.

Florida

Representatives Doug Broxson and Marti Coley co-sponsored a bill to scale back a law requiring septic tanks to be inspected every five years and making owners responsible for repairs. The bill is the same one championed last year by Coley in the House and Sen. Greg Evers in the Senate. The law, which went into effect July 1, affects 2.6 million septic tanks.

North Carolina

Wake County health and environmental officials postponed septic tank regulations they adopted in January until May 2012. The Board of Health Services and Environmental Service also agreed to consider the result of an ongoing study on the environmental, health, and financial impacts of a rule, which would require annual inspections of the 60,000 tanks in the county.