The Michigan Supreme Court has accepted an appeal of a lawsuit claiming the state’s Department of Environmental Quality does not have the power to force a township to install a public sewer system.
Worth Township filed the case after the DEQ ordered the installation of a sewer system to keep failed private onsite systems from discharging to Lake Huron and its tributaries. A circuit court had upheld the order, but the Court of Appeals in 2010 disagreed. A Supreme Court decision was expected in early 2012.
The state House of Representatives passed a bill requiring local governments to provide a receiving station if they ban land application of septage.
The Grand Traverse County Board of Public Works considered assessing septic system and holding tank owners $35 a year to cover the $400,000 in annual revenue lost at the Grand Traverse County Septage Treatment Facility.
Officials say the plant costs more to operate than anticipated and receives about 4.5 million gallons of septage a year instead of the estimated 19 million gallons it would need to remain solvent. Just a month after the $7.8 million plant opened in 2005, a concrete holding tank collapsed, causing $2 million in damage.
California
The State Water Resources Control Board proposed new rules that would eliminate mandatory solids testing for septic tanks and allow regional water-quality control boards to adopt programs tailored to local conditions. If adopted, the new policy would affect about 5 percent of homeowners with systems that are malfunctioning or near water the state identified as having high levels of bacteria and nitrates.
New Mexico
The New Mexico Environment Department held public hearings on possibly replacing its one-size-fits-all onsite regulations with permitting requirements to fit hydrogeologic conditions. The proposed amendments also would grant installers the authority to inspect their own installations and, in some cases, replace mandatory laboratory testing of systems with field measurements.
South Carolina
A state Department of Environmental Management regulation requires residents in coastal areas to upgrade failing onsite systems and cesspools when doing minor renovations to their homes, such as extending a deck or adding a door overhang. Town councils asked the General Assembly to adopt legislation requiring the DEM to approve cost-effective onsite systems instead of the mandated alternative technology systems, and to waive the requirement for renovations that do not add bedrooms.
Texas
As of September 2012, onsite systems must include risers and covers with fasteners to limit access. The amendment to the Health and Safety Code came after a child drowned in a septic tank with a flimsy cover that had no screws holding it in place.
South Dakota
Under a Pennington County ordinance, the county’s 5,000 onsite systems must be inspected every six years. Since August 2010, 750 inspections of crucial sites, such as homes on smaller lots or close to water, revealed 161 violations. Inspections by pumping companies found 56 systems with broken baffles, 10 with ponding drainfields, 40 with pit privies, more than 30 leaking septic tanks, and some 20 inappropriate steel septic tanks.
Indiana
The Department of Environmental Management warned more than 100 communities that they must work to eliminate discharge of untreated sewage into waterways. Health Department statistics showed that about 75 percent of onsite systems in Allen County, half the systems in DeKalb County, and some 2,000 systems in Williams County, Ohio, were failing.
Washington
A Cowlitz County Superior Court judge denied a state Department of Ecology motion to void a Wahkiakum County ordinance that banned biosolids for use as farm fertilizer. Only Class A biosolids, comprising 10 percent of the fertilizer applied, were not banned. The agency argued that the county restriction overrides state regulations.
