In Pender County, North Carolina, apparently it’s common for folks to empty a septic tank by running sewage through a garden hose into the woods out back. That’s what the county’s health director, Carolyn Moser, said last week in a news account.

Moser’s comments came in the Wilmington Star News after a local volunteer fire chief was cited for pumping waste out of his septic tank and into the woods in a neighboring property. The fire chief, in Surf City, N.C., Demetrius Batts, faces penalties and daily fines of $50 to $100 if he fails to repair his failing system. 

According to the story, Moser said cases like this one are fairly common in the county. She said that based on the cost of fixing septic systems, the fire chief’s illegal dumping is not unusual. “It’s expensive to repair a septic. With this economy, people do crazy things,’’ she told the newspaper. She said the county has issued seven violation notices this year. 

Well, if running sewage through a garden hose onto a neighbor’s property is common in parts of North Carolina, I’m glad I don’t live there. And if I pumped and repaired septic systems by profession, I’d be glad I don’t live there, either.

The biggest question in my mind is: If there is a history of this type of activity, what is the county doing to put an immediate stop to it? This is a serious health issue. It also presents a great potential to do public relations harm to the onsite wastewater treatment industry in general. If groundwater is tainted and people are sickened by a violation like this, it could, unfairly, reflect badly on proponents of decentralized systems.

Read the story here:

http://www.jdnews.com/news/local/scvfd-chief-cited-for-alleged-improper-waste-disposal-1.146851

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