The Ohio State Senate, after more than a year of arguments over the plan’s potential cost to homeowners, unanimously approved a bill that would create uniform onsite standards.
The legislation approves various treatment technologies based on soil properties, an appeals process for violations, a scientific standard for defining a public-health nuisance, the grandfathering of older systems, and the opportunity for homeowners to repair failing systems — when appropriate — rather than replacing them.
The most hotly debated principle requires a vertical separation distance for high seasonally perched water tables and harsh limiting soil conditions. Approved procedures to reduce the distance would elevate the system, pretreat or both. Opponents have objected to the expense of the solutions.
Advocates of the bill cite a 2008 study in which the state Department of Health found 23 percent of systems in the state were failing and 13 percent were projected to fail by 2013. Karen Mancl, an Ohio State University professor who studies sewage and water quality, argued the rules did not go far enough to protect drinking water and streams, and that some systems fail as soon as they are installed.
If adopted, the proposed plan would become effective in January 2012.
Rhode Island
Proposed rule changes by the state Department of Environmental Management would allow coastal residents to use advanced treatment technologies and composting toilets as an alternative to denitrification systems.
In addition, expanding the footprint of a home or renovation of more than half of it would require an upgrade of the onsite system. Another chief revision would give five South County towns the authority to enact ordinances that help stop nitrogen loading in salt ponds as long as those plans meet state requirements.
Pennsylvania
West Manheim Township officials proposed aggressive monitoring of onsite systems over requiring owners to connect to municipal sewers. The ordinance would require all systems to be pumped, inspected and certified regardless when the last pump-out occurred. A sewage enforcement officer would be required on-site during the pumping.
West Manheim currently has an ordinance requiring septic tank pumping every four years. Officials are working with the state Department of Environmental Protection to see if onsite requirements could be put into the township’s plan instead of the mandated sewer connections.
Minnesota
Based on complaints over potential costs and charges of over-regulation, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is considering amending the 2008 septic code. Counties were required to comply by the end of June.
Responding to complaints, the Land and Resource Management Department drafted proposed changes, which the counties approved. They become effective Jan. 1, 2011. If the pollution control agency amends the code, the counties can nullify the previous changes. Some proposed changes require septic tanks to be set a maximum of four feet deep and to be located where vehicles cannot drive over them. They also specify how to abandon tanks.
