As part of a tax case, the state Supreme Court exempted portable restrooms from the consumer sales and service tax for their use by an oil drilling company.

Antero Resources, of Denver, appealed to the court because of a tax bill from the state for its remote horizontal drilling operations. The company asked for a tax exemption on its crew quarters, portable restrooms and other equipment. The court sided mostly with the company.

In its opinion, the court noted that the key question under state law was whether items were used or consumed in the production of natural resources and whether the items were an essential part of production. Drillers are on site for two weeks at a time and work shifts around the clock. 

“These (portable restrooms) are located at remote well sites, and it would be impractical if not impossible for Antero to operate its well sites without making bathroom facilities available,” the court wrote. “Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how such operations could proceed without such facilities.”

The court did allow the state to tax the company for rentals of trash trailers and waste receptacles. As a result of the court’s opinion, the state will collect a fraction of what had been a seven-figure tax bill, reported WVNews.

Michigan

After a two-year struggle, residents of a Michigan township will be allowed to repair or replace failing onsite systems individually instead of being forced to pay for a central wastewater treatment plant. 

In 2018, the state Environment, Great Lakes and Energy department found a number of failing septic systems in Seville Township were discharging into the nearby Pine River. The department sent a letter to the town board ordering construction of a wastewater treatment plant for homes in the community of Riverdale, reported the Morning Sun of Alma, Michigan. Riverdale’s 124 property owners were looking at $6 million to $8 million. 

“We were told the soil wasn’t adequate for septic systems, but that wasn’t true,” Tish Mallory, a town supervisor, told the newspaper. 

Citizens formed a committee and the township began working with the Michigan Rural Water Association to address the problem. In a four-page letter, the department agreed to alternative proposals made by the town. Among those are conducting semi-annual water tests, establishing a septic district for the community, mandating pumping of all systems every seven to 10 years, and enacting point-of-sale rules requiring system inspections. 

Three homes and two businesses are using their onsite tanks as holding tanks until the local health department issues permits for new systems.

“We have been told by other (government) entities that we’ve been an example for other (EGLE) cases because no one has ever done this,” Mallory said.

The township is in central Michigan, about 44 miles west of Saginaw.

Iowa

Story County commissioners voted 2-1 to require all septic systems be pumped every five years. The county is in the central part of the state, about 45 miles north of Des Moines and includes the city of Ames.

There are 3,120 active permitted systems in the county, but 900 rural properties have no permit, reported the Ames Tribune of Ames, Iowa. A small study of systems without permits found that none had drainfields for secondary treatment. Systems instead discharged into field tiles, ditches or creeks. 

Penalties for violating the new law begin with a $65 fine, but the county’s Environmental Health Department won’t begin looking for non-complying residences until later this year. Residents who have never pumped their tanks, or who haven’t done so since 2016, will have the rest of the year to comply with the law.

Massachusetts

A septage hauler will pay $500,000 in penalties and fees for illegally disposing of wastewater. In addition, Midstate Sewerage, of Millbury, Massachusetts, will not seek state or municipal contracts for two years as part of a settlement with the state, announced the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy. The settlement ends a lawsuit filed in 2018.

Midstate was accused of dumping septage into a Millbury municipal pump station instead of hauling it to the Upper Blackstone Water Pollution Abatement District, news reports said. By doing so, the company avoided paying thousands of dollars in disposal fees. 

At the same time, the company had a contract with the state Transportation Department to dispose of wastewater, and the state says the company lied about disposal so it could receive payment under the contract.

Midstate — along with related entity LDI LLC — was also accused of installing unauthorized septage storage tanks at its property and of illegally handling and disposing of waste oil. 

Virginia

The Accomack-Northampton Regional Housing Authority has grant money available for low- and moderate-income families who need to have their septic tanks pumped or who need help repairing or replacing a failing system. 

Depending on whether a property is in the water quality project area, and depending on income and other factors, property owners may receive up to 100% of the cost of pumping, repairing or replacing a septic system, said a press release from the authority.

Pumpout grants are available for the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and people are eligible if their household income is less than about $40,000. 

The repair or replacement program is available only to people in parts of Northampton County. Income limits apply to this also, but even people with incomes greater than about $70,000 are eligible for a 50% cost share, the press release said. 

Oregon

Money is available from through the Federal Emergency Management Agency for people who lost their well water supply or onsite systems in the Echo Mountain Complex wildfire last fall. Residents in Lincoln, Clackamas, Douglas Jackson, Klamath, Lane, Linn and Marion counties designated for federal disaster aid may be eligible for money to cover repairs not covered by home insurance. 

“FEMA assistance cannot duplicate insurance coverage,” the agency said in a press release. “However, households that don’t have insurance or have received an insurance settlement less than the cost to repair serious damage may apply to FEMA for help with costs that are necessary to have a functioning home, including for repair or replacement of private wells and/or septic systems.”

Washington

Jefferson County’s Board of Health declined to change the county’s ban on outhouses at a December meeting. The board has been reviewing a number of regulations, such as sanitation requirements for people who live in RVs, tents and other nonpermitted residences.

One commissioner, Greg Brotherton, asked for repeal of the law. Other counties allow them, he said, according to The Leader of Port Townsend, Washington. And not everyone can afford to install a septic system, he said. 

Other members of the board refuted his idea, saying there was too much risk to groundwater and that it would be impossible to enforce state outhouse rules, which requires outhouses to be clean, free of flies, and not drain into state waters. 

Brotherton made a motion to repeal the law, but it failed for lack of a second. 

Jefferson County covers roughly the center of the Olympic Peninsula about 25 miles northwest of Seattle.