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- Info
Septic system problems on an urban fringe
| Author: |
Goehring, D.R.; Carr, F.R. |
| Date: |
1980 |
| Periodical: |
In: Journal of the Water Resources Planning and Management Division: Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers Convention & Exposition and Continuing Education Program; 1978 October 16-20; Chicago, Il. |
| Abstract: |
As a result of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cost-effectiveness directives, tighter controls on local sewer funding, and increased demands for residential occupancy of rural lands, new interest has been generated in on-site waste treatment systems, particularly septic systems. The consequences have been that the old problem of urban scatteration or sprawl has come to the fore together with a series of specific concerns for the rising costs of urban services and the impacts of growth on prime agricultural land, energy, and air quality. On-site waste treatment systems facilitated this scatteration and added surface and ground-water pollution to this list of problems. Rather than look at each of these separately, the New Castle County 208 Area wide Waste Treatment Management Program (New Castle County 208) regarded them as different facets of a single problem. Four years ago the New Castle County 208 was established to improve water, quality in New Castle County, the northernmost and most urban of Delaware's counties. Its final report (published 2 yr ago) indicated that several issues require further attention in the continuing phase of the program. One of these was septic systems, the use of which has been a continual problem. Besides contributing to health, safety, and water pollution problems, septic systems have been responsible for fiscal burdens on local government when costly sewer projects became necessary to relieve malfunctioning systems. Part of the problem was an over reliance on conventional technical and regulatory solutions to solve the former problems. The fiscal effects, however, were not being addressed. Dealing with all effects would require a comprehensive solution and some unconventional recommendations. One important fact must be made clear. Septic systems in New Castle County are generally used in high-income subdivisions crowding around the urban fringe. Many lie within older subdivisions in the sewer service area (surrounded by subsequent residential growth), and approximately one-quarter are found in rural areas. Septic systems in rural areas, however, are not the concern of this paper. Attention is instead directed to the systems in developed areas, because these are the ones that have the greatest impacts on the environment. This paper will show that: 1. Septic systems, both those that work and those that malfunction, impact the environment, land use plans, the fiscal base, and the general public. 2. Septic systems that work impact the community through ground-water pollution, and the facilitation of scattered and low density land occupancy that pushes up the cost of public services. 3. Septic systems that malfunction impact the community through surface water pollution and necessitation of costly relief projects that often force changes in land use and public service plans. 4. These impacts may be greater if we do not consider the long-range effects of our solutions. They may be greater if: (a) The problem is seen only as malfunctions, surface effluent, and a need to correct these both immediately and cost-effectively; (b) a crisis-mode is relief upon, i.e., solving immediate problems while neglecting nearby septic systems that have the potential to malfunction of cause ground-water pollution in the future; (c) problems are solved at public expense; and (d) a regulatory approach is used as the principal means of preventing future problems. 5. Engineering approaches to the septic system problem must be cast in the broader content of water quality and land use planning. This context has both short and long-range perspectives and includes all elements of the human environment. Before proceeding it should be made clear that the results considered in this paper are based on the New Castle County experience. The writers feel, however, that these results are applicable to many other urbanizing areas and can assist other jurisdictions in dealing with the problems of septic system use. |
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