Water views come with higher septic system price tag

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

During the June 9 Charles County commissioners' meeting, Jason Groth, the county's chief of resource and infrastructure management, and Mark Williams, director of environmental health services for the county's health department, presented a briefing on the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, 2009 legislation and limited fiscal resources.

"The purpose of the bay restoration fund and its establishment was to encourage the public to use nitrogen-reducing septic systems as well as nitrogen-reducing technology at wastewater treatment plants," Groth said. "House Bill 176 and Senate Bill 554 deal specifically with nitrogen-removing septic systems within the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area."

Charles County commissioners' President F. Wayne Cooper (D) asked Williams what an updated or best available technology septic system would cost someone building along the coast who did not receive financial assistance.

An entire system, the men calculated, could cost more than $20,000 if a homeowner installs a new conventional system for a price between $5,000 and $7,000, and then pays for the $15,000 nitrogen-reducing upgrade.

"The bay restoration fund is paid by every homeowner within the county and within the state of Maryland," Groth said. "It's essentially turned around for a free program for those who apply and are approved by the Maryland Department of the Environment and the local health department."

Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D) said one of the means for this restoration fund came about as a result of $20 million of excess revenue in the state legislature's septics account.

The restoration fund offers an opportunity for any Maryland landowners to upgrade their current or planned onsite sewage disposal systems with the best available technology at no cost for installation or maintenance for five years.

Homeowners can apply to have their systems paid for by the restoration fund as long as there are available funds in the general account.

Similar, but also stricter, are the state laws that passed in the 2009 legislative session. These House and Senate bills require nitrogen-removing technology within the critical area — a 1,000-foot buffer along a bay shoreline or tributary bank — no matter the projected or existing system's age. Both pieces of legislation take effect Oct. 1, and can call upon the restoration fund's balance to help pay for the systems.

The county's health department received its first grant for $605,000 after the fund was introduced in early 2007. By the time of its December 2008 expiration, 36 units had been installed.

The health department applied for another $1.8 million grant at the beginning of this year, which would cover 100 units worth $17,000 each, and $100,000 for administrative use.

The request is on the June 17 docket of the state Board of Public Works.

Williams said his department is expecting $800,000 for 60 units at $12,500 each, and half of the money needed for administrative use, or $50,000.

Seventy-one applications in Charles County's critical area alone have already been submitted and are waiting for monetary support.

The proposed nitrogen-reducing systems would cut the 60 milligrams of nitrogen produced per liter of sewage in a conventional system in half by freeing the element from its solid form as waste to its pure form as gas. It could also extend the life of a septic system, Groth explained.

High quantities of nitrogen lead to so called "dead zones" with levels of dissolved oxygen too low to sustain aquatic life.

"Introducing these updated systems means a more reliable and consistent wastewater effluent," Groth said.

"Whether [state funds] will last beyond the first round of these requests … maybe this will have to be revisited next year by the legislature," Hodge said. "Senate Bill 554: That says to me … the way the legislation was enacted … if these funds weren't available, the property owner would still have to incur that cost."

"We'll think twice when we want to live on the water now, won't [we]?" Cooper remarked.

msomers@somdnews.com