The unincorporated hamlet of Shenandoah, in northern Richland County, Ohio, has 35 homes, a church, general store and community center. A citizen’s complaint about wastewater discharging to an open ditch led the local health department to 36 failed onsite systems. Most had small lots, preventing their replacement. In 2003, the Richland County Health Department told the county commissioners to acquire a decentralized sewer system as soon as possible. The commissioners contracted Wayne Bishop, P.E., of K.E. McCartney and Associates Inc. in Mansfield, Ohio. “We considered every possible treatment alternative,” he says. “The solution had to be cost-effective for the residents,
