A decision by a New Jersey appeals court upheld amendments to the state’s Water Quality Management Planning rules that limit nitrates in onsite system effluent to less than 2 mg/l and prohibit sewers from extending into environmentally sensitive areas. David Oberlander, attorney for Bi-County Development Corp., was expected to ask the state Supreme Court to hear the case.
RHODE ISLAND
The state General Assembly approved legislation that gives property owners with cesspools until 2014 to abandon them, rather than January 2013. Communities designated for sewers have until 2020 to comply.
NEW YORK
A state Supreme Court justice ruled that the Putnam County Health Department cannot make its own rules affecting onsite systems and home improvements. Justice Francis Nicolai faulted health officials for requiring homeowners planning to increase their living space by 50 percent or more to upgrade their onsite systems, regardless whether new bedrooms were added.
FLORIDA
Estimates by industry and state officials show the annual cost of U.S. EPA pollution rules reaching billions of dollars for measures including upgrading onsite systems to limit phosphorus and nitrogen. The estimates were part of a 13-month study of potential financial burden by a committee of the National Academies’ National Research Council. The EPA contended the state would spend $135 to $206 million per year. Florida is the first state where the EPA imposed numbers-based limits on nitrogen and phosphorus, effective March 2012.
WISCONSIN
Legislators proposed rules allowing surface discharge and permitting homeowners to divert the flow from lot lines instead of replacing failed systems. If the measure were passed, county inspectors could not require onsite replacements unless household incomes exceeded the poverty level by 300 percent, and homeowners could get a grant of 75 percent of the cost of the new system.
The state has never allowed surface discharge. Two state regulators from the Department of Commerce and one high-ranking member of the Department of Natural Resources proposed a provision allowing residents to determine when their septic tanks need pumping. The code allows them to do this if they take a maintenance course, but proponents believe the requirement is unfair unless the state pays for the course and travel expenses.
NATION
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that shifts the primary responsibility for water pollution control to the states. The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011 makes it the states’ job to set water quality standards and keeps the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from invalidating legally issued permits. It stops the agency from issuing national regulations that include setting nitrogen reduction limits and compliance monitoring requirements for onsite systems.
