Since 1978, the state’s private sewage system replacement or rehabilitation grant program has awarded $83.2 million to assist more than 36,100 owner-occupied homes and owners of small commercial businesses in replacing or repairing their onsite systems. The Department of Commerce, which administers the program, has appropriated $2,999,000 each year from 2005 through 2007.
The grant provides partial funding if potential environmental harm exists, the annual family income is below $45,000, the system was installed before July 1, 1978, the dwelling is not in an area served by a sewer, or an inspector failed the system. Systems for small commercial establishments must have a maximum flow rate of less than 5,000 gpd. The businesses must have annual gross revenue of less than $362,500.
This program, in conjunction with others administered by Commerce and the Department of Natural Resources, reduces water pollution and improves the state’s waterways and groundwater.
Ontario
The revised Ministry of the Environment Provincial Policy State-ment says new developments with private communal or individual onsite systems can be built only if sufficient reserve capacity is available to dispose of or treat hauled septage. An agency fact sheet lists approved disposal options as municipal treatment plants (45 percent accept some septage), dedicated treatment facilities, landfills and dewatering trenches, and sites accepting alkaline-stabilized septage.
Treatment or disposal technologies include alkaline stabilization, composting, lagoons, dewatering trenches (long, narrow ditches in permeable soils), dewatering facilities, and incineration. Treatment capacity does not include land application of untreated septage. Visit www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/publi cations/forms/6316e.pdf.
Pennsylvania
The state Department of Environ-mental Protection is updating the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act. Proposed changes include increasing the size of in-ground systems from a minimum of 496 to 1,000 square feet, and the size of sand mound systems from a minimum of 600 to 1,000 square feet.
The new rules call for more testing procedures and inspections, and the use of geotextile fabrics to cover onsite systems. According to Les Johnson, Blair County sewage enforcement officer, the fabric costs $300 a roll compared with the current practice of covering a system with roughly $7 worth of straw.
Under the changes, municipalities will be expected to certify the long-term operation and maintenance of onsite systems. The DEQ will schedule public hearings on the proposed changes after the drafts undergo further review.
Also, the House Environmental Resources Committee sent its revised Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act to the full House for action. The bill will prevent the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from using civil penalties against sewage enforcement officers (SEO), except when the SEO is a landowner, the violation occurred on his/her land, and he/she resists local agency efforts to resolve the violation.
Dean Shultz, the certification board chairperson, reports that no one has appealed a decertification in this century, and he knows of no decertification actions brought by the DEP. Nevertheless, SEOs have paid civil penalties resulting from actions initiated outside the decertification process. In two of the three known cases, the civil penalty was paid to the DEP. Read the bill at www.legis .state.pa.us. Search HB 1374.
Washington, D.C.
U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) introduced an amendment that replaces the term “navigable waters” in the Clean Water Act with “waters of the United States.” The legislation clarifies the EPA’s ability to enforce the act on wetlands, streams, and ponds that are not part of navigable waterways.
The amendment is intended to overturn recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that favor EPA reversals of position and policy. It may expand the applicability of the act at a time when local governments are having difficulty funding Total Maximum Daily Loads for the current list of waters. Visit http://thomas.loc.gov and search HR 2421.
