Health office and EPA agree on septic rules

Tuesday, August 29, 2006 The health commissioner says the county is now doing things right. By ED RUNYAN VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF WARREN — An agreement between the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Trumbull County Health Department is the culmination of nearly four years of upgrades to the department's household sewage regulations. The new agreement, in the form of a consent decree attached to a lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, defines a number of measures already undertaken by the health department since 2002 to meet Ohio laws, explained Dr. James Enyeart, health commissioner. "What we're saying is, we agree," Dr. Enyeart said of the consent decree, filed Friday. "What is being done now should have been done a long time ago." He added that EPA officials have explained that the consent decree was necessary because "they didn't know how long I would be around, and they didn't know how long the [health] board would be here. They wanted it in writing." Changes begin Dr. Enyeart said the EPA first came to the county to express its dissatisfaction with the health department in November 2002, before he was hired as health commissioner. He believes changes by the health department led to his hiring, and also membership changes in three of the five positions on the local health board. Among the major changes the board made starting in 2003 were regulations relating to "off-lot" systems, in which a septic system allows the discharge from the system to leave the property and enter the waters of the state, such as a stream. Such systems have to meet many new health requirements. The agreement puts in writing those and other regulations, said Erm Gomes, a regional EPA representative in the Twinsburg office. Binding document Dr. Enyeart said the consent decree is a binding document that says how the health department must conduct itself in the future. "We are bound by the court," he said. Dr. Enyeart added that the septic regulations now in place put the county in good shape to face new statewide household septic regulations coming Jan. 1, 2007. runyan@vindy.com