Sewer systems, septic systems are both good and bad on Home Services

Jan

Sewer systems, septic systems are both good and bad

posted by admin in Sewer Septic

Septic tanks and central sewer systems are both efficient, acceptable means of waste disposal — provided they work properly, according to public and private experts.The town of Trent Woods and its 4,192 residents face the decision of whether to switch from its majority septic system to central sewer through the city of New Bern. Some residents have questioned the move, and some officials say the switch is needed now by some homeowners and will eventually be needed by the whole town.New Bern, which is finishing work on a $23 million wastewater treatment plant that will expand its daily capacity from 4.7 million to 6.5 million gallons, is awaiting the decision of Trent Woods commissioners. Being able to hook up all of Trent Woods — about 1,700 households — would increase the sewage flow by 600,000 gallons daily, but the added households will provide a bigger customer base that will, in turn, help the system stabilize rates.Among the chief concerns of Trent Woods residents is the cost of the project. The cost of hookup fees initially will be $1,500, with homeowners looking at about another $1,000 to connect from their house to the street. New subscribers also face a rate higher than those of the 11,800 city customers, which is common when towns contract for service.While the extension of sewer would affect the tax rate of Trent Woods residents to cover their costs of the project, the overall cost of the new plant does not affect New Bern taxpayers.”The city operates the water and sewer departments as stand-alone entities,” said David Muse, New Bern city engineer. “All the money collected by the sewer department is spent in the sewer department. The taxes do not support the sewer department.”The New Bern sewer department runs a $3 million annual budget, with a $2.7 million budget for water.Muses department pays the city for services such as meter readers, billing and maintaining finance records.One advantage for potential Trent Woods customers is convenience. Another is not having to deal with septic tank problems.However, a tie-in to a sewer system is not a free pass from repair bills — from the house to the city connection. That area remains the responsibility of the homeowner.One area drain repair expert, Al Gura of Royal Flush, warns that people who switch from septic to sewer tend to get careless.”When they are suddenly hooked to a city sewer system, people will use their facilities as a garbage disposal for everything,” he said. “I dont think I could live long enough that we would run out of it (business).”A Trent Woods tie-in also provides a plus side for New Bern customers, according to Muse.”The advantage to the city is if you spread costs over more customers, then you can reduce the amount of rate increases you might have to do otherwise,” he said.With a first payment of $1.4 million due on the new plant next year, adding new customers wont create a rate cut, Muse said. But over the long haul, the increase in customers will postpone future rates increases.New Berns system is one of 152 individually permitted dischargers along the Neuse basin, according to the state Division of Water Quality. About a third of those are municipalities, with the other two-thirds being smaller systems serving a variety of users such as subdivisions and mobile home parks. While the state leans toward regional wastewater treatment facilities for efficiency, DWQ does not have a preference when it comes to sewer or septic.”As far as the Division of Water Quality goes, if a septic system is working properly, they are fine,” said state Division of Water Quality spokeswoman Susan Massengale. “They are good systems when they are working well. If, for some reason, the systems dont continue to work properly, one of the things is the possibility of them hooking up with a wastewater treatment system, because there can be health and water quality concerns with bad septic systems.”New Berns new facility, on Glenburnie Drive, is being built on the site of the original city wastewater plant, constructed in 1965. Additional facilities were added in 1989. To build the new plant, half of the plant was removed, and the city was put under a special order of consent by the state, limiting the number of new hookups during construction. The new plant, which has been in the planning since 1997, will outflow into the channel of the Neuse River, via a 900-foot pipe. Unlike the current system, the new one will remove nitrogen, a major concern of DWQ all along the Neuse River Basin. “The process we were using was not capable of doing it,” Muse said. “The design we have now removes nitrogen and phosphorous biologically. We were removing phosphorus chemically.” “The New Bern sewer system is going to treat that water to an extremely high level, way above that by septic tanks,” said Al Hodge, an environmental engineer in DWQs Washington regional office. “New Bern is going to be treating wastewater to the point where its re-use quality will allow people to wash cars with it, spray up next to their houses, water their front lawns and they could pipe that water into their house to use in their toilets.”While the outflow from the new plant will initially go into the Neuse River, the city is closing in on an $8.8 million re-use project that could lead to the citys discharge coming “out of the river,” according to Muse.”That will actually take that water to the old Martin Marietta quarry and impound it. We are anticipating that the majority of it will go to the ground water system,” Muse said. “We are talking about water that you take one step farther and you could drink it. This is not anything similar to what is coming out of a septic tank.”Plans call for re-use on a local turf farm, with other potential uses including cooling towers for industry, and on golf courses.”Were probably going to have a permit in the next three or four months,” Muse said. Hodge said Muses estimate on the permit was accurate, although he cautioned the quarry project involved complex issues — nutrients, affects on groundwater and recharging of the river. He explained recharging was the same action as when it rains. It makes its way into ground water, which eventually gets to a ditch or creek.”The water in the quarry does the same thing,” he said. “The water they put in there ultimately still is getting to the river. The water in the quarry travels underground and recharges the river,” he said.”It takes it longer to get there and its being dispersed over a larger area. We believe it is better for the river to put it in there. But, were constantly evaluating that complex system of underground water movement.” The quarry project could be operational a year after the permits are awarded. A conjunctive-use permit will give the city the option to pump to the river or quarry.”At this time, we have only done scientific calculations and given our conservative estimates as to what will actually go into the groundwater system,” Muse explained. “It may be higher, it may be lower. Until we actually put the project into operation, we wont know exactly how much water we can pump over there on a daily basis.”If it will take it all, we will put it all over there, particularly during the summer,” he said.Along with the ongoing monitoring of sewage plant discharges along the Neuse River, the most high-profile incidents are spills.”We have spills like everybody else,” Muse said. “The newspaper is one of the contacts on our list. Our record is pretty good. We have an occasional spill resulting from grease that residential users discharge into the system.”Those types of spills are limited to the gravity system, which most customers use. However, all but one loop road section in Trent Woods will be on a vacuum system.”The vacuum system is a closed system and it is next to impossible to have a spill there, because it is in a vacuum pipe,” he said. Gravity systems also have closed pipes, but they also have man holes, and if there is a serious clog and the water rises, it will come out of the man hole.”Spills come from the failure of the pump to pump, and the system backs up and water keeps coming into the system,” Muse explained. Steve Steinbeck, with the on-site wastewater section of the state Division of Environmental Health, said concerns remain about possible spills with every central sewer system in the state.”If you put in public sewers and the pump stations that are probably going to have to go with them, now youve concentrated the wastewater,” he said. “When a problem occurs, it is almost invariably more massive with more public health and or environmental impact.”We think we have solved our problem when we put in the pipe — either vacuum or pressure sewer. Yes, its off our property, but its still in our environment. The thing we have to realize is that now its concentrated and little problems can become big problems very quickly. Every wastewater treatment plant up and down the Neuse River has experienced problems of varying degrees.”While the residents of Trent Woods have the option for septic or sewer, Steinbeck said that is not the case in the states overall wastewater picture. “A lot of people think that a septic tank is a temporary wastewater facility waiting for a public sewer. And, that is no longer true. There are not enough dollars available anytime in any near future to sewer up all the citizens in North Carolina,” he said. “That is why the state and the commissioner for health services have tightened this program up to the point that were putting in a system today that will last essentially the lifetime of the facility itself.”While conceding that some soils simply will not support septic, he remains a proponent of on-site and small systems that function properly.”The engineering community and planners, for years, have preached public-held treatment works as the ultimate solution for wastewater management,” he said. “Even EPA is now turning that around and saying look at these decentralized concepts — look at managed on-site wastewater systems, small cluster systems or small community systems. They can be the solution to wastewater treatment and disposal.” Professionals in the septic tank field say that the keys to longevity of a system is maintenance, provided it is sited in acceptable soil and constructed properly.Not all soils will support a septic system. That determination is made by the county health department, which evaluates a plot extensively, based on the soil, site and setback criteria.A $100 evaluation includes topography and landscape position, soil characteristics such as wetness, depth, texture, structure and expandability. Also, there is the issue of available space for a proposed septic system and drain fields. Since 1982, new systems were required to have a “repair field,” or area comparable to the size of the original system on the lot.”It depends on the particular lot,” said Rick Evans of the Craven County Division of Environmental Health. “We evaluate each lot for all these conditions. Like most parts of the county, there are some very good soils over there (in Trent Woods) and there are some very unsuitable soils.”After a successful soil evaluation, a $75 authorization to construct permit is required. If the system works successfully, that is the end of contact with the health department.However, if a problem arises and repairs are needed, the health department conducts a free evaluation.A septic tank and drain field can range from $2,000 to $7,000, depending on the complexity of the system.Keeping the system functional is a homeowners chore, requiring regular pumping, costing about $125.”Maintenance is so minimal,” Steinbeck said. “It is nothing more than removing the scum and the sludge every four or five years. And, if you treat it like a member of your family, it should last for decades. If you abuse it and dont maintain it, then certainly it is going to have problems.” Charles Humphry, of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, was part of a North Carolina State University research team that studied discharges from septic systems in the Brices Creek area near James City.Those studies, he said, showed favorable levels of the removal of nitrogen.With the states wastewater treatment methods about evenly divided, the issue of sewer versus septic has many proponents on either side. It appears to remain a matter of choice.”Its an issue that will probably be debated for many years and there is no absolute answer on it,” Steinbeck said. “You have to let each site and set of facts stand on its own merit and make the best informed policy decision.”Charlie Hall can be reached at ext. 263 or charlie_halllink..