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Septic owners facing new rules come Jan. 1
By Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
For the owners of about 16,000 septic systems in Mahoning County and 21,000 in Trumbull County, new statewide rules taking effect Jan. 1 could change the options that will be offered to them if their system fails in the coming years.
The rules — depending on how they are carried out by each county health department — also could cause new requirements for some septic owners for telling their county health department what type of maintenance is being done on the system.
The subject has been controversial over the past decade in Ohio — so much so that one set of rules written by state officials in 2007 was rescinded a few months later.
In 2010, the Ohio Department of Health sought to arrive at a consensus on what the rules should include, and each county board was allowed to decide some rules for themselves.
An ODH committee that included 43 groups — including manufacturers, home builders, Realtors and engineers — met monthly for two years to establish the newest rules, the ODH said.
Septic systems, as rural folks know if their house is not served by a sewer line, take away the waste from toilets, showers and sinks.
An example of the rule flexibility is contained in a one-page ODH summary of 15 rule changes. Only three are “required” of every board of health. The others are optional.
Even one of the bigger “required” items allows flexibility — the one requiring boards of health to establish rules governing maintenance and maintenance-reporting. Each board of health will decide how quickly to require all septic owners to begin reporting system maintenance.
In Mahoning County, those decisions will be made in the next couple of months. In Trumbull County, a decision was made to continue to allow “grandfathered” septic systems to remain outside of a mandatory reporting requirement for now.
In all cases, county boards of health say this is an opportunity to educate all septic owners to the need to have septic tanks pumped out every three to five years and to correct problems such as missing or broken components.
Rebecca Fugitt, the top ODH official who works with septic systems, said Ohio legislators felt changes were necessary to address septic systems that are not being maintained properly and therefore putting contaminants into the community.
Fugitt said it’s in the best interest of septic owners who don’t do much maintenance to begin doing so to avoid the potential for a complete replacement down the road.
“You want to protect your investment,” she said, comparing it to investing in the operation of your automobile.
In additon to getting the tanks pumped, she suggests not using garbage disposals with septic systems. Additional tips are on the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency website.
Fugitt said some aspects of the new rules were created to combat concerns about the amount of money septic owners are being charged for inspection by some health departments.
In Mahoning and Trumbull counties, most septic owners are left alone in their decisions on how to maintain their system — unless the health department receives a complaint. The sale or modification of a home also triggers a septic-system inspection and a possible order to upgrade or replace.
But the intent of the new rules is for the owners of all 1 million Ohio septic systems to be accountable for those systems to operate correctly, Fugitt said.
In Trumbull County, that may take 10 to 15 years, said Frank Migliozzi, the county’s environmental-health director. The county board of health and about 20 “stakeholders” who have met in recent months to discuss how to implement the new rules have concluded that Trumbull County’s current way of monitoring septic systems is OK for now, Migliozzi said.
In part, that is because Trumbull County increased its septic regulations in 2003 in ways that most other counties did not, Migliozzi said. It took aggressive steps because the county had significant problems with contamination coming from failed septic systems.
There were two reasons Trumbull County was singled out by state officials for its septic problems, Fugitt said: inadequate enforcement of septic regulations for many years and soil that was not conducive to effective system operation.
The problem led to a settlement between county officials and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. It called for the county to promise to build sewers in many of the most-contaminated areas of the county, and it set deadlines.
As a result, Trumbull County has built sewers at a rate that outpaces nearly every other county in Ohio, Migliozzi said.
“We are on a pace we can sustain,” Migliozzi said of reducing the number of failed septic systems through construction of sewers and upgrade of failing septic systems through sales, the complaint process and a few other things.
Mary Helen Smith, director of environmental health for the Mahoning County Board of Health, said the most significant changes for Mahoning septic owners starting Jan. 1 will be for owners of the 3,000 septic systems that already have reporting and maintenance requirements.
For example, 12 months after a new system has been installed, it will have to be inspected, she said.
Changes in system design also are being made to increase the chances that a soil-based system can be used in Mahoning County. Greater use of soil-based systems, such as leach fields, will reduce costs for consumers, Smith said.
“Over time, we have to bring those other 13,000 septic systems into the program,” Smith said. The Mahoning County Board of Health Program Rules Advisory Committee will decide that over the next few months, Smith said.
State Sen. Capri Cafaro of Hubbard, D-32nd, said she will watch the rollout of the new rules to ensure that they don’t make septic problems worse.
She received 50 calls per day when she was first elected to the Ohio Senate in 2006 from people concerned about having to spend up to $20,000 to replace a septic system. She wants the new rules to eliminate unnecessary confusion, she said. State officials say the average cost of a new septic system in Ohio is $8,500.