Sludge Watch ==> Sewer vrs Septic - great NY case study - we need sewer avoidance

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This is a good example of how we could, with small investment of money and 
care, avoid the environmental damage done by sewerage and sewage treatment 
plants by repairing and maintaining septic systems and judicious use of 
composting toilets and other onsite septic systems.

We need to stop mixing toilet waste with industrial wastes.  Ocean 
communities, lakeside communities, and parks are a good place to install 
effective well maintaine on site systems.

In this community, could they not pass a municipal ordinance requiring 
testing and maintainance of on site systems  ?

...........................



Septic vs. sewer
By NICK REISMAN
reisman at poststar.com

Lake Luzerne New York
Published: Monday, December 03, 2007



DEREK PRUITT - dpruitt at poststar.com
Residences sit along the shore of Lake Luzerne Nov. 30. Town officials and 
environmentalists are concerned septic systems around the lake aren't being 
maintained adequately to ensure water quality.

LAKE LUZERNE — Bringing a sewer system to Lake Luzerne is flush with 
problems.

Like many rural lake communities, the town of 3,219 doesn’t have a sewer 
system. Instead, residents and businesses have individual septic tanks that 
occasionally need to be pumped to remove built-up waste.

The only problem, said Town Supervisor Gene Merlino, is that some folks who 
live near the lake might not maintain their systems.

More than 100 homes and cottages dot the landscape, many stacked practically 
on top of one another and obscured by trees.

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They range from modest campsites to larger, newer homes.

"Ten to 15 years ago, Grandma and Grandpa stayed in the cabin, and that was 
OK for them," Merlino said. "But now, the next generation that was handed 
down these homes, they have three kids, so it taxes most of these little, 
small rural cottages along our lake system."

In many ways, septic tanks that are old or have fallen into disrepair are a 
good example of why the town needs to construct a sewer system, according to 
town officials and business owners.

Tanks that fail or overflow can wreak environmental chaos on nearby water 
sources, which would affect a lake-oriented community all the more. But the 
cash for a sewer project isn’t there.

Few use low-cost cleanout

Earlier this year, the town tried to entice some property owners to clean 
out and repair their tanks.



DEREK PRUITT - dpruitt at poststar.com
Residences sit along the shore of Lake Luzerne Nov. 30. Town officials and 
environmentalists are concerned septic systems around the lake aren't being 
maintained adequately to ensure water quality.

To order copies of staff-produced photos from The Post-Star, please visit 
http://reprints.poststar.com/. While it’s a costly procedure — the price 
varies depending on the age, design and amount of material in the tank — 
cleaning the tank is vital to the surrounding environment.

Inspectors from the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District had 
offered to check out individual septic tanks, offer maintenance tips and 
even clean some of them.

The program, which was funded by a $15,000 grant, would give tank owners a 
discount if maintenance was needed. The program didn’t make much of a dent. 
Of the 109 or so property owners on the lake, only 14 people took advantage, 
Merlino said.

"I was a little disappointed in the participation but it’s a start," he 
said. "I want to see if we can promote it a little bit more. But you can’t 
just walk on people’s property and check their septic tanks."

David Wick, a manager with the conservation district, said it’s an awkward 
proposition to help clean and inspect a tank.

Most people who haven’t had maintenance on their tanks in recent years are 
either embarrassed by the state of the tanks or worried they could be fined.

"The only easy way to do this on a mass effort is to do this in a 
non-threatening way," Wick said. "It’s a very touchy situation."

Maintaining a septic system, no matter how messy, is very important, 
according to environmental scientists. In a properly operating septic 
system, the waste goes into the ground, where micro-organisms take care it, 
said Larry Eichler, a research scientist with the Darrin Freshwater 
Institute at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

"But in a septic system that’s either not been properly maintained, such 
that it fills up with solids, or a failing one with pressure on pipes — the 
leaking material can just run off directly to the lake."

Eichler said it wouldn’t be surprising if at least parts of the lake had 
low-level pollution from septic runoff.

"There are a number of older homes around the lake with septic systems," he 
said.

"For the most part, they don’t upgrade them. So they’re simply working with 
what they have when the camp was built.

"I think the problems are real." Art Havighorst, the president of the lake’s 
homeowners association, said some of the residents who live in and around 
the lake are perhaps not used to having a septic system.

"Especially in a town like Lake Luzerne, where you have part-time residents, 
many are coming from towns with sewers," he said.

"If you bought the house in the last five years, you may not even realize 
what that entails."

Havighorst said the association has in recent years tried to inform 
residents about proper septic care.

"It really is the homeowner’s responsibility, but it affects everybody when 
their septic system fails," he said. "To that degree, people need to be more 
aware of the maintenance obligations and what they should be doing."

Testing for pollution

The water from Lake Luzerne eventually seeps into the Hudson River, which in 
turn becomes drinking water for Queensbury residents.

A January study by C.T. Male Associates, a Latham-based construction 
company, warned that failing septic systems could affect the water source’s 
quality.

"Inadequacies in some of these systems due to high bedrock and insufficient 
area for leach fields has, through the years, resulted in direct discharges 
of raw and partially treated sewage to the Hudson River," according to the 
report. But officials in Queensbury aren’t worried about any impurities 
being flushed their way.

"It would not impact our water supply," said Bruce Ostrander, the Queensbury 
water commissioner.

"Generally there is E. coli in the Hudson River anyway. It’s such a high 
volume of water, I doubt it would increase the concentration levels."

Merlino, the Lake Luzerne supervisor, said pollution isn’t a concern.

"It could be five out of a hundred (people who have problems with their 
tanks)," he said. "There’s no way to tell. I don’t want to make it look like 
a doomsday problem for the lake, because it’s not." Inspectors, testing the 
lake in the last year, found little evidence of tanks seeping into the 
water.

Sewer too expensive

Still, town officials want to modernize the town and install a new sewer 
system.

But after years of planning and at least three costly studies, town 
officials concluded that construction would be too expensive for local 
taxpayers to bear.

The C.T. Male Associates plan would have connected hundreds of homes in the 
town and part of nearby Hadley. Most studies pin the cost at about $13.5 
million to hook the entire town of 1,900 or so homes up to a sewer system. 
To connect the lake area alone to a sewer system would cost about $7 
million.

"Nobody wants to talk about it," said Mike Parwana, the owner of Chicken 
Coop Forge, a blacksmith shop in Lake Luzerne. "They want to keep taxes 
down.

"Meanwhile, the town’s dying. There’s no money for an essential governmental 
responsibility — making sure the town has adequate sewage."

Merlino, too, is frustrated that the project has stalled.

"Three studies on them all came back that we just can’t afford (not to 
implement a sewer system)," he said "The town cannot. The taxpayers cannot."

http://www.poststar.com/articles/2007/12/03/news/local/doc475413f555450036635643.txt