Bringing It All Back Home

As we begin to see the full costs of building and maintaining ‘big pipe’ sewers, opportunities grow for onsite treatment technology. Is the industry ready?

Maybe it was a case of the pendulum swinging too far. Historically speaking, sanitary sewers were the salvation of health in cities. Sewers helped put a stop to all manner of horrific and readily preventable diseases that had been spread by human waste.

But somewhere along the line, it became dogma that sewers were always better than any alternative. Maybe it was years of long experience with open latrines and outhouses. Maybe it was more years of seeing the harm septic systems did when built where they didn’t belong.

In my days as a journalist I covered many plan commission meetings where debate over new subdivisions centered on whether the site in question was within cost-effective reach of the big pipe. Septic systems were at best temporary. Sewers were always preferable.

Bills come due

That was before society began to appreciate what it costs to maintain and repair all those pipes buried all those years ago — and what it still costs to build new pipes and new wastewater treatment capacity. It was also before scientists and regulatory officials figured out which types of soils could support septic systems and which could not.

It was also before inventors figured out essentially how to take the processes that work in big municipal treatment plants and translate them into small systems that can cost-effectively serve individual homes and small cluster communities.

So there we have it. Septic systems still face a stigma from years of bad experiences with primitive treatment technology (and, to be fair, less than ideal system installations). Yet now, no less than the U.S. EPA is on record saying that onsite systems deserve to be a permanent part of the national wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Consensus now has it that under certain conditions, onsite systems are better than the big pipe. Under what conditions? Well, when systems are designed, installed and maintained properly. And when technology is applied that fits the needs of the site. Thanks to the vast range of technologies available, that is now possible almost regardless of site and soil conditions.

Onsite systems have the added benefit — more appreciated in these times of regional water scarcity — of keeping water within the same watershed or sub-watershed, instead of simply sending it downstream by way of a treatment plant outfall.

Time of opportunity

Do we appreciate what this means in terms of opportunity to do good for the environment, good for taxpayers’ pocketbooks, and good for our own businesses? If not, we should. Think of it. Perhaps a majority of homes being built today are outside the existing reach of municipal sewers. If indeed onsite systems are as effective as centralized treatment, then the big pipe doesn’t have to be extended to those areas.

One of the main things standing in the way of that opportunity is the old stigma. Fundamentally, that is what needs to be broken down before onsite systems can take their rightful place among treatment alternatives.

What will break down the stigma? Several things. For one, a more credible onsite industry — one that can get people to listen when it speaks, and ideally speaks with one voice. For another, more credible industry members — highly educated and skilled professionals who know their business and will never cut a technical or ethical corner.

If the industry and its members are seen as less than credible, then onsite systems and technologies will continue to be suspect. The way to build credibility in the long run is quite simply to build system after system after system that does its job.

The long view

Every single thing that undermines public faith in onsite systems undermines the big opportunity for the industry. The adage is true: It takes years to build a good rep- utation, and only 15 minutes to destroy it.

So as you do the things true professionals do — like taking part in discussions about rules and regulations, taking regular training and providing it to employees, following sound design and installation practices every time, learning and applying new technologies, serving as an education resource for customers and — perhaps most difficult — having zero tolerance for those whose bad behavior pulls the industry down — think to yourself about what is at stake.

What is at stake is nothing less than a highly promising future for the onsite treatment industry.



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