If you were not able to attend the 8/26 Public Meeting on the Route 8 sewer extension issue, it was taped by the County. If you would like to see it but are unable to watch it then, let us know and we will try to get a tape (or dvd) for you.

Since you are distributing comments on the Route 8 Septic extension issue, please add mine:

I agree with all of the other comments, but would add the following:

1) I don't know where the estimate of $500 per month to empty holding tanks comes from. If a holding tank is (as I understand it) essentially a septic tank with no outlet, this does not square with my experience. For maintenance purposes, I have my septic tank pumped out each year. It costs me on the order of $100 and takes only about 20 minutes. I'm sure the County could get a better bulk rate.

2) It strikes me as strange that, by the County's own estimates, only about half of the septic systems in the area of concern are "failing." This would seem to indicate that effective septic systems in this area can be constructed. Before it spends millions on extending a line, the County should investigate which systems work and why. It may be that the problem is simply the age of the systems. If this is the case, replacing them (including their drain fields and fill) would undoubtedly cost less per household than the projected expansion. Again, I base this conclusion on estimates I received when I (wrongly) feared that there might be a problem with my system.

3) Many villages of a few hundred people in the United States are served by small scale local treatment plants. The county should investigate the cost-effectiveness of this option before it lays 8 miles of pipe to serve a few hundred people. 

4) As others have pointed out, the County's research on the extent of the "failing system" is grossly inadequate. Tests were conducted only twice, and they were conducted during the period of maximum ground saturation. It may be that this is just a seasonal problem. If so, there may be seasonal treatments that can be applied to it. Moreover, the County has yet to produce any authoritative evidence or testimony on whether there is, in fact, a public health threat. How bad is bad, from this point of view? It is interesting that no one seems to have gotten sick. Before it spends millions on the pipe, the county should spend a few thousands on research by a truly INDEPENDENT sanitary engineer (ideally someone from a university, rather than a hired gun of the county staff) to determine exactly what the extent of the problem is, and exactly what (if any) threat it poses to public health. Are we talking about only a seasonal problem for a few hundred properties that do not meet some arbitrary standard, or are we talking about a continuing problem for large numbers of properties and the realistic possibility of a typhoid epidemic? Or something in between? The exact nature of the problem should affect the solution adopted, and as far as I can tell, the exact nature of the problem has not yet been determined.

5)  Whatever solution is adopted, I do not believe that local property owners in the affected areas should bear the full cost. I presume that County building codes allowed them to construct the septic systems they have, and they constructed those systems in good faith. If the codes were in error (or neglected to address this issue), then the County is liable for all or much of the cost of its mistake. 

Forrest Chisman
Stevensville 

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