It’s time to reach down deep into the Onsite Installer mailbag and pull out some interesting notes and news items I’ve received in recent months. Here’s a sampling of correspondence grabbed from hundreds of monthly emails, with a bit of commentary along the way:

Would you hire a Realtor who doesn’t support point-of-sale inspections?

Late last year, the voters of York township, Maine, voted down a referendum that would have required point-of-sale onsite inspections for homes. It was the only referendum to fail out of three measures aimed at reducing water pollution. Two referendums targeting stormwater runoff issues passed overwhelmingly, by 5-1 margins. The onsite inspection question failed 3,683 to 3,052.

Why the vastly different outcomes when the referendums all targeted similar pollution concerns? I’m sure it had to do with an opposition campaign mounted by Realtors groups concerned about the impact of required inspections on lucrative property sales.

According to an article at www.seacoastonline.com, local real estate agents rallied opposition from state and national Realtors associations to fight the measure. They argued that requiring point-of-sale inspections would be a “great overreach of town government regulation’’ and it would be “costly to sellers and buyers.’’

In the comments section under the story, a poster asked whether readers would want to hire a Realtor who may be more concerned about sales commissions than in protecting the interests of their clients in a real estate transaction. Those comments have since been taken down from the website. The same commenter posted another response questioning why the criticisms were removed.

I think the poster raised a valid question. Wouldn’t an onsite inspection report serve the interests of both the buyer and seller? Both parties in a transaction should want to know that the system is working properly, eliminating potential legal wrangling down the road. In the story, a proponent asked the question: “Why shouldn’t you be responsible for your own septic system? If you’re selling your house, you’re responsible to make sure your roof is in good repair. Why not your septic system?’’

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The onsite system is as critical as any component to the proper function of a home. Requiring an inspection at the time of sale is a reasonable regulation to protect buyers and sellers and the health and safety of the public.

Fertigation: The new Brangelina?

Forget hot celebrity couples; the wastewater world is coming up with its own trendy linguistic blend: fertigation. It’s the release of fertilizers through irrigation, and onsite systems provide a great opportunity to promote the process, according to a paper written by turfgrass experts and published in the journal Crop Science.

Authors Bernd Leinauer and Elena Sevostianova reported that 40 percent of all golf courses in the U.S. Southwest use effluent from municipal treatment plants – containing fertilizing nitrate – to create lush fairways. They suggest that the use of partially treated effluent from onsite systems can be used to effectively fertilize landscaping across the country, not just in the desert Southwest.

The authors promote the idea of delivering nitrate-laden effluent to plant roots underground rather than sprinkling plants from above. They say decentralized wastewater systems serving entire neighborhoods could “tailor’’ the effluent to contain 15 ppm of nitrate to replicate the nitrate-based fertilizers golf course operators and homeowners already work into the ground with potable water.

A turfgrass specialist at New Mexico State University, Leinauer is studying the viability of fertigation in his home state. He says the results have been positive, that drip-irrigated tailored water is producing grass that is as green and healthy as test plots receiving potable water and mineral fertilizers.

“We’re doing our part in the Southwest, but our region is completely different from, let’s say, New England or the Midwest. So these questions need to be investigated more thoroughly on a regional basis,’’ he said in a release.

Celebrating soils

Did you know it’s the International Year of Soils? Well, it is, as declared by the Global Soil Partnership at the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. And the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) has planned a variety of activities and is posting promotional videos to give props that soils so richly deserve. You can see the first of the IYS videos here: www.soils.org/iys/monthly-videos.

“Soil – like air, water and sunlight – is one of the natural resources necessary for life. By telling the story of what soil does for us as humans, we hope to increase the respect humans give back to soil, to protect it for future generations,’’ said David Lindbo, past president of SSSA and a professor of soil science at North Carolina State University. The Madison, Wisconsin-based SSSA was founded in 1936 and has more than 6,000 members.

New videos are being posted throughout the year, but the first few present interesting scientific information in an easy-to-understand way. When your onsite customers wonder how their drainfields work, you can refer them to the series of videos for helpful background. The more the public knows about how soil works, the better they will understand why it’s critical to take care of their onsite systems.

So have fun digging up the dirt on soils this year!

More resources to educate your onsite customers

Another source of news you can use comes from publications offered by the National Environmental Services Center (NESC), which occasionally sends updates my way. Here are a few new online products the NESC has added in recent months that may appeal to your crew or your customers. For more information, go here: http://nesc.wvu.edu/products.cfm.

“Buying or Selling a Home With an Onsite Septic System.” This story from the Pipelines newsletter covers inspections, system types and questions a homebuyer or seller may consider.

“Minimizing Nitrogen Discharges From Onsite Wastewater Systems.’’ This covers basic information about nitrogen, why reducing levels in effluent is important in some locales and explores how nitrogen-reduction systems work.