The Virginia Environmental Protection Agency-approved Watershed Implementation Plan includes nitrogen-reducing onsite systems and pumping of septic tanks every five years. Implementation would require legislation approved by the General Assembly.

Secretary of Natural Resources Doug Domenech called the plan the most far-reaching and ambitious ever devised to clean up state rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. Clarke County supervisors said such legislation would open the floodgates for alternative onsite systems without regard to local hydrology and other concerns. They hope to gain oversight and control of systems where local environmental conditions are not favorable.

 

Michigan

Grand Traverse County has accepted a $725,000 settlement over the troubled $7.8 million septage treatment plant that suffered a partial collapse of a holding tank less than a month after opening in May 2005. The engineering firm that designed the plant will pay $400,000, the construction company will pay $225,000 and the former attorney for the Board of Public Works will pay $100,000. Since repairs were completed, the operating costs were more than projected and it is taking in half as much septage as expected. The settlement ends a planned lawsuit.

In statewide news, after a year together as the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the state DNR and Department of Environmental Quality are again separate agencies. Newly elected Gov. Rick Snyder split the two in January. Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm had combined the agencies as a cost-cutting move in January 2010.

 

MiNNESOTA

The Mille Lacs County Board adopted an onsite ordinance that requires a point-of-sale compliance inspection before selling properties with septic systems. Previously, only those installed along lakes or rivers required an inspection. The county has about 600 onsite systems.

 

MONTANA

The Lewis and Clark City-County Health Department proposed two options on how homeowners with onsite systems could meet county maintenance standards. They could file paperwork detailing household water use and septic system pumping history to help determine how often the system should be pumped.

Or, they could hire county-certified inspectors to check their systems every four years and base a pumping schedule on the results. The guidelines would take effect over the next three to five years, targeting more vulnerable groundwater areas first. The guidelines would be the first of the kind in the state. Visit www.co.lewis-clark.mt.us.

 

ONTARIO

As of January, non-agricultural source material to be land-applied must be evaluated for pathogen content, odor potential, nutrient value and metals content. Applying treated septage based on nutrient requirements for crop growth instead of hydraulic loading rates will require significantly more land, according to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs.

 

ALABAMA

John S. Young, the court-appointed receiver operating Jefferson County’s sewer department, proposed a monthly clean-water tax on residences and businesses with onsite systems to help reduce the county’s $3.2 billion sewer debt. About 142,000 households are sewered and 105,000 have septic tanks, the environmental services department says.

 

MARYLAND

The Bay Restoration Fund Advisory Committee proposed doubling the annual flush tax from $30 to $60 per household. House Environmental Matters Committee chair Maggie McIntosh said she would introduce the legislation. The revenue is needed because the estimated cost to upgrade the state’s 67 wastewater treatment plants doubled from $750 million in 2004 to almost $1.5 billion in 2010, and to meet stricter U.S. EPA guidelines. The increase would apply to households with sewers or onsite systems.

 

FLORIDA

While the Office of Fiscal Accountability and Regulatory Reform allowed new standards for septic tanks in the Florida Keys to advance, the governor signed legislation delaying implementation of a law requiring septic tanks be inspected every five years.

The law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, is delayed until July 1. Two legislators filed a bill to repeal it.

 

GEORGIA

Athens-Clarke commissioners will not start a utility to regulate septic tanks but instead launch an education program urging homeowners to have their systems pumped more often. The program, recommended by the Legislative Review Committee, will notify property owners and real estate agents that tanks should be pumped every three to five years. It will record where the tanks are, who owns them, and how old they are.

 

OHIO

The Geauga County Residential Infrastructure Revolving Loan Fund Program will help residents with low or moderate incomes pay for onsite system repairs. The loan requires consumers to pay 25 percent of the cost, then make monthly payments for the balance — about $50 a month.

 

RHODE ISLAND

Portsmouth answered the state Department of Environmental Management insistence upon a $40 million sewer system by creating a Wastewater Management Ordinance requiring inspection of onsite systems. The inspections, begun in March, will help the Wastewater Management Commission plan the replacement of failed systems with technologies tailored to properties or suitable for cluster systems. The ordinance requires cesspools to be replaced within five years or within six months of sale.

 

ILLINOIS

An ordinance passed by the Lake of Egypt Water District gave residents 60 days to pay their sewer bills or the district would remove their leased septic tanks and place a lien on the property. Customers pay a monthly $25 sewer fee. Once tanks are removed, customers will have to pay up to $5,700 to have them reinstalled.

 

Massachusetts

A lottery in Carver decided who had the first shot at $400,000 in Community Development Block Grant money for homes with structural or septic system deficiencies. Numbers were assigned to homes, then selected in a random drawing to determine the order of review. Projects and applicants must meet certain criteria.

 

Texas

During the latest legislation session, the Texas Onsite Wastewater Association helped defeat a bill requiring onsite sewage facility authorized agents to purchase a $2 million liability insurance policy before renewing their licenses. The association has received word that the legislature will reintroduce the bill or one like it.

 

South Dakota

The state budget would eliminate programs in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that oversee septic tank regulations and other water issues if legislators cannot find federal money to offset the loss of state money.