A retired hydrologist and local town board supervisor wrote a story for the Dunn County News in northwestern Wisconsin advocating ending the practice of land spreading septage in the state. Neil Koch argues that protecting groundwater might mean ending the practice popular with pumpers, especially in rural areas.

Koch says there’s not enough oversight of land spreading, noting that there are 400 approved spreading sites in his home Dunn County and one DNR person to monitor them along with thousands of sites in 16 other counties.

He says many of the approved sites may not have the proper permeability characteristics for land spreading. He questions whether all pumpers are in compliance with various spreading rules. 

“Pathogens can be transported to humans when wild animals, farm animals, birds, rodents and pets come in contact with land-spread septage,’’ he writes. “Although Wisconsin law requires that septage be limed before land spreading, the effectiveness of lime in inactivating the full spectrum of virus types has not been fully investigated.’’

Koch says several states have already banned land application of septage, and he wants Wisconsin’s legislature to look into doing the same as long as a municipal treatment plant is willing to take the waste.

You can read Koch’s full article here:

 http://chippewa.com/dunnconnect/news/opinion/columnists/the-straight-poop-on-septic-waste-landspreading/article_eef0ab42-ceb6-11e2-bebf-0019bb2963f4.html

What do you think? I’m interested in getting the perspective of pumpers who work in states where land application has been banned.

Do you have comments on this blog? Respond below or send me an email at editor@pumper.com.