More than 20 years ago, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health started an onsite system inspection program. In this county surrounding Cleveland in north central Ohio, the Board of Health saw an opportunity and acted.
“We were the first county in Ohio to conduct comprehensive onsite system inspections,” says Harry Stark, R.S., M.P.A., deputy director of environmental health services. “The county’s first entry into onsite management was through onsite system inspections at the time of real estate transfers.” About that time, the county also began requiring a treatment tank pump-out every three years.
Today, the county has moved beyond those measures with a comprehensive onsite program that includes a complete onsite system database, homeowner outreach and education, and competency testing for system installers. NPDES Phase II stormwater rules also interact with the onsite program.
These and other program components help ensure that water resources around the county are protected.
River on fire
Fifty-nine municipalities in the county voluntarily delegate health and environmental protection responsibilities to the Board of Health.
“Years ago, interest in onsite systems flowed from the Cuyahoga River Remediation Study,” Stark recalls. In 1969, the Cuyahoga caught fire when chemicals dumped into it ignited. By the early 1980s, with those pollutants in decline, septic system discharges surfaced as the top concern for river water quality.
At that time, well over 20,000 onsite systems were in service in the county. A few hundred changed ownership every year. “The health department recognized land sale transactions as an appropriate entry point for the introduction of system inspections,” Stark says. The inspections identified failing systems, and that triggered a requirement to replace them.
The inspections also found that most systems had a stream overflow pipe or other recognizable stream impact. “Home buyers and real estate agents eventually came to value these inspections,” says Stark, who supervises the Watershed Protection Unit, responsible for nearly all onsite systems in the county’s 1,260 square miles.
Homeowner acceptance has always been a major hurdle for onsite management programs, and this pioneering program was no exception.
Program expansion
The Watershed Protection Unit addresses new system construction as well as repairs and replacements. A well maintained database with information on almost 19,000 systems showed that by 1992 only a fraction of the total were ever inspected. “That year, we abandoned the time-of-sale inspection program and replaced it with a comprehensive management program,” Stark says. “The database was and will always be an invaluable resource.”
It contains a wealth of information about each system’s location and components. In some cases it includes a site sketch. It has been upgraded to accept GPS data, cumulative pump-out history, and water-quality test results. “As water-quality samples were collected and the results plotted, the initial management inspections were focused in areas of greatest need,” Stark says.
The database, however, is not the only key to success. “Homeowners had the most to gain from this program so we distributed newsletters that taught about onsite systems,” Stark says. “We held town meetings. We reached out with homeowner education efforts and more.”
These efforts all paid off as homeowners began to appreciate the value management added to their properties. Buyers can access a system’s complete history, and sellers need no longer worry what a home inspector will find. Onsite system impacts on streams and rivers decreased as well.
Fewer onsite systems
One impact of the onsite program is improved coordination of plans to address failing systems and the expansion of the “big pipe” solution. Previously, the discovery of a failing system triggered an extension of the closest sewer line.
Stark estimates that in the last 25 years, as many as 9,000 properties formerly served by onsite systems are now served by the Northeastern Ohio Sewer District, which covers parts of several counties and 61 municipalities. The district operates three treatment plants, which also receive septage from all Cuyahoga County onsite systems.
The Watershed Protection Unit has seen a steady decrease in new system installations. In 2007, of some 250 permits issued, only 10 were for new construction — the rest were repairs or replacements. Only about 50 system permits were issued in the first nine months of 2008. “This is due to confusion surrounding efforts to set new statewide onsite regulation changes,” Stark believes.
Ohio state government enacted new onsite regulations on Jan. 1, 2007, but six months later the state legislature rescinded them and allowed counties to set their own rules. During this time of regulatory uncertainty, Cuyahoga County suspended its inspection program. “We were uncertain which failing-system remedies we could offer,” Stark says. “We did not want to force stop-gap or short-term solutions on our landowners, so the program was put on hold until the situation solidified.”
With the introduction of advanced onsite technologies and a greater appreciation of the role of soil in treatment, onsite solutions may be gaining renewed interest. The county has also identified ways to include a fail-safe factor in technologies that incorporate both aeration pumps and dosing pumps. “We require and inspect for the presence of circuitry that de-energizes the dose or lift pump if the process pump fails or is de-energized,” Stark says. “No longer can a homeowner disable the treatment device and experience no negative impact of his actions.”
Coordinated solutions
Stark says the Watershed Protection Unit’s staff of 17 professional and support personnel have always avoided quick-fix, short-term solutions. “We did not compel the installation of an onsite replacement system when we knew it would be replaced by a sewer extension in three years,” he says. The unit and the sewer district worked together to coordinate sewage facilities planning with the onsite system inspection programs.
Since 2003, Cuyahoga County’s stormwater has been regulated under the NPDES Phase II Stormwater Rule, which relates to municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s). As part of Phase II, Stark’s unit has been operating an illicit discharge detection and elimination program (IDDE).
In the field, the inventory of MS4 outfalls involves walking all surface waterways, taking digital photographs, and recording other data, such as the outfall’s watershed, municipality and stream name, GPS coordinates, size and shape, material, condition, type of pipe, and whether it is a recognized or previously unknown outfall. The data is entered into a Board of Health database.
When an outfall is found to be flowing more than 72 hours after a rainfall, water samples are taken and the water quality is analyzed. If fecal coliform or other constituents of human sewage are found, the outfall’s drainage area is scrutinized for possible sources. As the number of onsite systems declines, the source is usually identified as a cracked, leaking or otherwise failing sewer main or lateral.
“This coordinated effort has been credited with identifying previously undetected failing onsite systems,” Stark says. “We are able to compare the onsite system database and the IDDE database.”
The 2008 budget for the onsite component for the Watershed Protection Unit is $750,000. It covers staff time for the sewage program, water-quality sampling and analysis, educational outreach and materials, travel and supplies. A large portion of the funds comes from user and permit fees and federal and state sources.
Multiple partners
“There will always be onsite systems in Cuyahoga County,” Stark says. “The health department is committed to the proper siting, design and operation of onsite systems, but we cannot successfully do it alone.”
Each activity is a component of onsite management. Most of the activities are handled by groups of task-focused experts outside the department. The department, mean-while, concentrates on communication with each group of experts.
“There are about 40 state-licensed installers in the county, each of whom must pass a competency test,” Stark says. He appreciates the Ohio Onsite Wastewater Association for its active role in installer training.
About 40 pumpers work in the county, and they are also regulated, although they are not required to pass a competency or proficiency exam. “To help all of these entrepreneurs understand the process and increase consistency, we annually meet with both [installers and pumpers],” Stark says. Through their regular contact with homeowners, these industry professionals are the first-line information source for the public.
The 59 municipalities the Board serves are also partners, and they have unique informational and educational needs. The dozens of elected and appointed officials are contacted by homeowners daily, and they need the same big-picture understanding of what the Board of Health, the Watershed Protection Unit, and the sewer district do.
Everyone benefits when each partner is on the same page and delivers the same basic message. To assure harmony and diminish discord, Stark’s unit invests in communication and coordination. Management extends well beyond a landowner’s backyard fence. Stark’s responsibility is to look over the fences and across municipal lines and watershed boundaries.
“Cuyahoga County’s health department has a history of pioneering,” says Stark. “It is a tradition that we respect and will continue.”
