New proposed onsite regulations will require people building or expanding homes in Rhode Island’s Narrow River watersheds and South County salt ponds to use nitrogen-reducing advanced treatment systems. Replacements for failed systems on lots smaller than 20,000 square feet with potable wells face the same restriction.
The cesspool act, starting June 1, will require homeowners to replace all failed cesspools, cess-pools used for commercial enterprises or multi-family dwellings, and cesspools within 200 feet of tidal water, public wells, or reservoirs. Of the estimated 50,000 cesspools in the state, about 3,000 must be replaced during the next five years. The law requires all cesspools to be replaced by 2013.
Typical nitrogen-reducing systems will cost around $28,000, versus $10,000 for conventional systems. For those who can’t afford the upgrades, the Department of Environ-mental Management (DEM) will grant extensions up to five years, or until the properties are sold.
Darlene Gardner, president of Superior Septic Service Inc. in Saunderstown, notes that too few maintenance companies exist to service larger numbers of innovative systems. “Failing systems will be worse for the environment and give the technology a black eye,” she says.
According to Gardner, the DEM held public hearings on the proposed rule, but “didn’t leak much to the people and towns this ruling would affect.” Gardner and other pumping companies did their best to notify customers.
Oregon
The Department of Environ-mental Quality (DEQ) is proposing a 3-percent annual fee increase to address rising program costs, and a 5-percent one-time commercial permit fee increase to support 2.5 new positions in the water quality program. It also proposes increasing the onsite application surcharge from $40 to $60 to hire three additional staff members who will monitor compliance.
The 8-percent fee increase will affect some 500 machine shops, offices, retail stores, RV parks, mobile home parks, private camps, golf courses, churches, resorts, restaurants, gas stations, markets, taverns and small industrial operations. More than a million Oregon-ians rely on onsite systems. The DEQ estimates that 13,900 applications per year will be subject to the surcharge.
A proposed word change in the rule will allow certain structures to be located closer to onsite systems and enable the systems to fit previously impermissible areas. The proposed or modified rules become affective on June 19, 2008.
Minnesota
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) approved an update after a year-long review process as part of its 10-year septic plan. Counties will have up to two years to pass ordinances incorporating all the changes, but some must be implemented immediately.
For example, contractors are allowed to install onsite systems without further soil verification if samples from two licensed contractors match the design plan. Eric Buitenwerf, administrator of the Environmental Services Office (ESO), says the change circumvents soil inspection by the organization during installation.
Counties could require ESO officials to take a second core sample before installation, but that would necessitate two trips to building sites and slow down the permitting process, unless extra staff was hired.
The MPCA now requires an eight-page management plan for each onsite system. Redundancy is likely, says Buitenwerf, as MPCA backed off on plan inspections for enforcement reasons. He worries that new design elements may make onsite systems so expensive that people will install old-time systems such as dry wells or cesspools. “Some county residents have abandoned proper septic systems altogether,” he notes.
Kansas
Upgrading failing septic systems is one way that Kansas and Missouri will spend $900,000 they are getting from the U.S. EPA to restore water quality in the Marais des Cygnes river basin. Local groups on both sides of the state line have undertaken water quality protection activities in the Marais des Cygnes Basin since 1983, according to a news release from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Other projects include planting vegetation along shorelines; establishing alternate watering facilities for livestock, installing porous concrete surfaces in parking lots, and creating patches of vegetation along city streets to filter contaminants. The basin encompasses 3,230 square miles in Kansas and 453 square miles in Missouri and has a population of more than 125,000.
Missouri
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is amending regulations dealing with onsite wastewater systems. The changes are still in draft, and public comment is not being accepted until the proposals are published. The agency expects the changes to be effective in September or October of 2008.
Details of the draft changes are included on the department web site at www.dhss.mo.gov/Onsite/ Regs.html. There could be a reduction in the number of continuing education requirements for inspectors and evaluators, although the licensing and documentation rules would become stricter.
Continuing education for instal-lers, soil evaluators and percolation testers could also be reduced after the initial three-year registration period from 20 hours every three years to 12 hours for installers of advanced systems and soil evaluators, and to eight hours for basic system installers and percolation testers.
