Septic Systems in the Media: ‘From the Trenches’ News Highlights, 2024
One of the most fun parts of our monthly newsletter, From the Trenches, is the roundup of news stories from the past month covering septic systems and decentralized wastewater. They’re often hyperlocal stories, but it can be fascinating and edifying to learn about both the similarities and differences in septic stories, challenges, and successes across the country — and sometimes around the world.
Below, we’ve collected some of the stories we found most interesting and educational featured in the first year of our newsletter!
Ohio residents reject septic tank fee, health department restates need
By Lauren Hoffman, The Chronicle-Telegram | January 5, 2024
“Many Lorain County residents woke up Tuesday morning to find bills from the Lorain County Public Health Department in their mailboxes, and few were pleased. ‘I received a letter from a place that I don’t even know what they do exactly,’ Elyria resident Richard Hathaway said. ‘I have had no explanation and no answer from the county commissioners either.’ The bills in question are part of the health department’s Operation and Maintenance program or O&M, for residential septic tanks. Handed down from the Ohio Department of Health, this program is not new.”
Woman rescued after falling 25 feet into septic tank in California
By Tony Kurzweil, KTLA5 | February 8, 2024
“Emergency rescued a woman who was trapped for two hours after falling into a septic tank outside a mobile home in Fontana Thursday. Crews were sent to the 8200 block of Cherry Avenue around 9:45 a.m. when someone heard screams coming from a deep hole and called 911. ‘We found a 40-year-old female down approximately 25 feet in what we determined to be an abandoned or previously used septic tank,’ San Bernardino County Fire spokesperson Eric Sherwin said.”
Washington woman paid sewer bill for 23 years, unaware she had septic tank
By Aina de Lapparent Alvarez, Everett Herald | March 9, 2024
“After a record cold snap in January, Leri Harper checked her basement in southeast Everett. ‘It was just starting to warm up and pipes were starting to leak,’ said Harper, 69. ‘I wanted to make sure I didn’t have any broken pipes.’ All five rooms in her basement were flooded. When the plumber she hired, Bruce Melton, came to inspect the damage, he called the sewer connection ‘weird.’ It was above ground, transitioned from a normal cast iron pipe to a concrete pipe then to a 6-by-4-inch PVC fitting. All unusual. Two months later, Harper literally has a journal filled with notes titled: ‘Sewer/Septic Saga.’”
Failing septic tanks are polluting the South Carolina coast. Thousands more are going in the ground.
By John Ramsey, The Post and Courier | March 12, 2024
“Septic tanks are silently spewing filth into a creek on James Island, where the $12 million set aside for sewer lines may not solve the problem. In Berkeley County, fetid water is rising to the surface, turning the yards of a gated housing development into swamps. Just north of Charleston in the town of Awendaw, hundreds of homes with septic tanks are planned near a coastal wildlife refuge, a move that environmental groups warn will threaten some of the cleanest waters on the South Carolina coast. Up and down the East Coast, cities and towns are spending millions — or in the case of Miami, billions — to protect waterways endangered by inundated septic tanks. Monitoring wells in Beaufort County show South Carolina is no different, and that groundwater rises for weeks at a time to levels that would cause septic tanks to send bacteria into nearby streams, creeks and rivers.”
Cape Cod has a big septic tank problem
From Scientific American and WBUR | May 17, 2024
“Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is a magnet for summer tourists, with beaches, bays and ponds that draw millions of visitors from around the world. But now that water and that tourist economy are in jeopardy. Decades of pollution are destroying ecosystems and choking water with toxic algae. … Over the next three Fridays environmental correspondent Barbara Moran will take us on a trip to Cape Cod to show us where the pollution is coming from—and how communities are scrambling to clean it up.”
A hidden threat: Fast-rising seas could swamp septic systems in parts of the South
By Brady Dennis, Kevin Crowe, and John Muyskens, The Washington Post | May 22, 2024
“On the worst days, when the backyard would flood and the toilet would gurgle and the smell of sewage hung thick in the air, Monica Arenas would flee to her mother-in-law’s home to use the bathroom or wash laundry. … Residents in neighborhoods around Arenas’s have similar tales to share — of out-of-commission toilets, of groundwater rising through cracks in their garage floors, of worries about their own waste running through the streets and ultimately polluting nearby Biscayne Bay. For all the obvious challenges facing South Florida as sea levels surge, one serious threat to public health and the environment remains largely out of sight, but everywhere: Septic tanks.”
Dune: Part 2‘s Harkonnen homeworld was inspired by septic tanks
By Christian Holub, Entertainment Weekly | May 21, 2024
“Giedi Prime was glimpsed briefly in 2021’s Dune film, but director Denis Villeneuve wanted to change up the look of House Harkonnen’s desolate homeworld for Dune: Part Two, his second movie based on Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi novel. From the moment he wrote the script, Villeneuve visualized the gladiator sequence as black-and-white.Production designer Patrice Vermette, a longtime collaborator of Villeneuve who won an Oscar for his work on the first Dune, refers to this decision as a “game-changing” moment. Multiple departments required a lot of research and development to make the sequence work. But the design aspect all clicked into place for Vermette one day while he was driving outside Montreal. ‘I came across this field of septic tanks being sold by a vendor,’ Vermette tells Entertainment Weekly. ‘Denis had always envisioned Giedi Prime to be a world of black plastic, and I was driving in that day, those black molded plastic septic tanks had this gloss, and there was a veil of dust on them. The way that the sun was hitting them, I was like, “my God, this could be Giedi Prime.”’”
‘Salon, farewell’: Beautician waxes lyrical about new career – fixing septic tanks
From Harvey & Hugo | August 12, 2024
“As a beautician, Hannah Long spent her days making people look glam. However, she has now swapped the salon for septic services. Having grown tired of lash tints and waxing, Hannah is now a trainee service engineer for a UK leading septic specialist, Premier Tech. ‘My old boss thought that I was crazy and just didn’t get the career change,’ admitted Hannah, from Surrey. ‘My boss asked “Why sewage?” – but I was waxing people for a living, being a beautician really wasn’t as glamourous as people think!’”
North Carolina focuses on helping municipal water and sewer systems, but septic owners will have to wait
By Will Atwater, North Carolina Health News | September 5, 2024
“Aging water and wastewater infrastructure is an issue in North Carolina. According to the 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, the state’s wastewater infrastructure needs about $5.3 billion in upgrades. Recently, state leaders have rolled out funding initiatives to address that glaring need. In July, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office announced $253 million that will, in part, support ‘drinking water and wastewater infrastructure funding and stormwater construction grants,’ according to a release. The funds would support ‘70 projects in 30 counties statewide, including 51 construction projects.’ … Missing, however, from the billions dedicated to shoring up the state’s water infrastructure is funding to help owners of properties that have septic tanks.”
California homeowners face $5,000 a day fines over polluting septic systems
By Janet Wilson, Palm Springs Desert Sun | October 2, 2024
“Yucca Valley property owners who aren’t complying with a ban on septic tanks are beginning to feel the hammer from state enforcers, who want an aquifer that supplies drinking water for the rural town off Highway 62 to stop being polluted with toilet waste runoff. After years of warnings, state water regulators have now issued cease-and-desist notices against three Yucca Valley homeowners for failing to hook up to public sewage lines, and for discharging septic waste into the town’s primary drinking water source. If they do not comply by December, they could face penalties of $5,000 a day and referral to the state attorney general for possible further sanctions.”
Students present septic tank models to Allegany County Department of Health
From the Wellsville Sun | November 6, 2024
“Five groups of Alfred State Civil Engineering students presented septic tank models and posters to a group of four representatives from the Allegany County Department of Health. Each group, four or five students, were tasked to build a tabletop septic system along with a poster that detailed the operation of the system and its role as a significant source of groundwater pollution. Students took theoretical explanations they had learned in class and applied them to the hands-on project.”
Michigan legislation would require periodic septic tank inspections
By Garrett Ellison, MLive | December 6, 2024
“Michigan has debated for decades but never passed a uniform statewide septic code — an abject governance failure that continually threatens public health and the environment, say academics and water quality advocates. Whether the latest push can get over the finish line seems unlikely after a state Senate panel adjourned without voting on legislation this week as Democrats juggle pent-up legislation in a lame duck session before the party’s trifecta ends in January. On Tuesday Dec. 3, the Senate natural resources committee heard plans to replace a patchwork of county rules with a new state standards governing the design, construction, installation and maintenance of on-site human wastewater systems. Under the proposal, inspections of the roughly 1.3 million septic systems in Michigan would happen periodically or be triggered by a property use change or increase, such as building more bedrooms and bathrooms.”
•
Be sure to sign up for the mailing list for From the Trenches (if you’re not already on it!) so you can keep up with our monthly roundup of septic news. And if you want to see any of our complete news roundups, visit our From the Trenches archive to find links to every edition of the newsletter!