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What no one mentioned in the story: one of the reasons to have local Health Departments control septic system permits is that they also typically control residential water well drilling…and it makes good ol’ Hoosier Common Sense to have someone watching both of those at the same time so that homeowners don’t end up drinking their own sewage. If Health Departments can’t enforce a “sanitary setback” from a well, then that protection disappears.
Let’s put the foxes in charge of the chicken coops! Allowing a septic contractor to “override” a health department determination should be allowed only if, say, the contractor agrees to pay triple repair and remediation costs if that septic system subsequently fails.
This bill is a bad idea.
This is bad policy. It’s bad for people and the environment. The Indiana GOP will pass this in a heartbeat.
I wasn’t aware that strengthening the right to pollute the communal water supply with bodily waste was a GOP priority this session.
The more you know…
Maybe if some of the local health departments were open minded about new and alternative systems this wouldn’t be necessary.
Be more specific.
Joe B. – I can be specific. Our septic system in Indy was having issues. It was really a distribution box issue, $3k to rebuild the box system which would function “as needed”. However, we preferred to install a whole new system in our backyard, because it was the original 50 year old system and we wanted to go the extra mile. Our septic contractor, that is considered the best in Indy, they suggested the best location, if we wanted a new one, would be the same place in the backyard. This is after multiple soil samples. We said great, that works, because anywhere else has large trees and other items. Price would be $15k, we agreed. Then the Health Department came out, they said they found a workable spot, 20 feet down, in a remote corner of our yard, that would require loosing a massive 75+ year old oak tree, ripping out a garden, as well as unground boring to avoid damaging sidewalks, and an electronic grinder pump system that requires a permit to be renewed every 3 years I think, and maintenance, and brought the cost to $36k. Two other contractors agreed with our first, that it was best where the old one is, but the city said there is a rule that if another possible location is found, then we must go there, no matter what, and abandon the old one. So we went with the simple $3k repair. Let me know what you think about those specifics.
Sounds like you solved the problem in the most fiscally responsible way that didn’t involve getting health department approval. Good outcome all around!
Why did the City insist on a new location?
I struggle with the concept that professionals always know better than the government, members of one specific trade group now gets to overrule all government oversight, and the apparent lack of consequences for that professional.
I mean, what’s to stop a homeowner for shopping around until they find the required one professional who says yes? What are the consequences in the bill for a professional who says yes to take the check and his malfeasance fouls a water source? Best I can tell, there are none.
And, a reminder, Indianapolis is still under a consent decree with the EPA for how polluted streams are.
I personally think a better solution to situations like yours might be a process created to appeal to a state level organization.
Joe B – because the health department has an arcane understanding of their own rule that they require “if there is another useable location, then the old site must be abandoned (meaning pumped dry and caved it/backfilled) and the homeowner must use the new location”. Even though it required costly and trouble prone equipment (i.e., if power goes out, if a pump is out of service, possible overflows, failure, etc.). The assumption that they health department knows more than the contractor is not one that you should make. More-often-than-not when we work with the health department, they rely on out expertise. Their staff that knew the trades have all since retired or are getting very close to that age. The fact is, the current staffers just do not have that knowledge, which is where these complaints come from, when experts constantly shake their heads at the health department decisions. Yes, there is an opportunity for private companies to side step based on the reported suggested regulation, but something is needed to either allow the experts to run the show, or get actual experts working for the health department, because they no longer have any (stay for a very small few).
I appreciate your insight and sympathize with what you’re going through but I think the current legislation remains a poor solution to any problem. Just increasing funding levels to where the experts work for the government would also solve the problem… my opinion is that it would behoove the government to have such expertise on their payroll.
“I sympathize”. Great, thank you. Now your suggestion to increase government payroll to attract the “best of the best”. Let’s double all government payroll, which of course we all pay for with our taxes, and then attract the “best”, and cross our fingers that the private sector does not then increase their wages to compete for the best, which of course they will, and so it goes. I used to work in government, it is sad, but best of luck. To counter, we need private/public partnerships, WITH oversight rules. Your plan is inflation with no hope, because government is slower than private sector innovation/pay increases. Respectfully, your mindset is stuck; even when you know your mindset is flawed, you dig and double down.