WASHINGTON — When the kids report the backyard is all ‘muddy’, with a funny smell, it may be too late. So Loudoun County is looking for better ways to make sure more of the vast number of home septic systems in the county are properly taken care of.
Algonkian District Supervisor Suzanne Volpe says she does not want to call out any particular former neighbors, but she has seen some of the issues first-hand.
“Let’s just say there are folks from Eastern Loudoun that had, say, lived in suburbia their entire lives, had been on public water and sewer their entire lives, they move out to some beautiful little hamlet out in say Lovettsville or in Hamilton, and all they really know when they buy their house out there is ‘cool, well and septic, no water bill!,” Volpe said at a committee hearing Friday.
“We have to do something to improve the situation because most of them don’t realize that there’s a problem until the kids come in from the backyard and go ‘the ground’s all muddy back there mom and it smells funny’, and by that point in time they have a serious problem,” she added.
The board’s Transportation and Land Use Committee advanced plans Friday to modify septic system rules to require that tanks be inspected or pumped out at least once every five years. Right now, rules require conventional tanks be pumped out every five years. The committee is also looking for information about whether the board can require that information about those rules be provided when homes with septic systems are purchased.
Jerry Franklin, who oversees septic programs for the Loudoun County Health Department, says inspections can cost from $50 to $200 depending on which company is used, how far out of the way the home is, and how easy the tank is to access. That compares to $200 to $350 for pumping out a tank, which would still need to be done from time to time, but may be needed much more often in some homes, or much less often in others.
The varying needs are also why Loudoun County Health Department Director David Goodfriend is suggesting the department be allowed to grant limited special exceptions
“There are those unique situations that come up that are hard to think about as you’re putting in an ordinance: the little old lady from Pasadena who only flushes her toilet once every three years and has a financial hardship to have an inspection, might that prompt us to come up with an internal policy for how to deal with that?” he says.
Franklin says most other jurisdictions he looked at enforce septic tank pump-out or inspection regulations by simply pestering people.
“Fairfax [County] is probably one of the most aggressive in that if you don’t pump your tank every five years they just bombard you with letters…and they actually have a very high compliance rate in Fairfax with that,” he says.
Northern Virginia wastewater and health authorities are working on more comprehensive plans for the region that may help companies that deal with septic tanks across county lines. Existing rules limit where the waste can be dumped based on where it was created.
Loudoun County does already have some information for homeowners or prospective homeowners online to help figure out whether the cost should be factored into a budget.
Catoctin District Supervisor Geary Higgins has well and septic at his home.
“People that buy houses know that they have a well and septic on it…now they may not be familiar with what’s required in the maintenance,” he says.
“It would be helpful, if we could require that, if they got some kind of explanation of what is entailed in taking care of a healthy system, and that it doesn’t just stay there by itself forever and ever,” he adds.
That is something some homeowners have told Blue Ridge District Supervisor Janet Clarke they did not understand.
“We have so many septic systems, and so many more slated to go in in different areas of the county, and this is one of the complaints that I’ve received over and over again that they just had no idea behind the septic system, what was involved,” she says.
Volpe and Clarke emphasize that it is not just a “Western Loudoun” issue, since a number of developments in Sterling, Brambleton and elsewhere are also on well and septic.
Septic contractors must be licensed by Loudoun’s Health Department, and are required to file documentation on pump-outs with the county.
Franklin says the county has met with pumpers who have failed to file the documentation, and in one case did press legal action that successfully changed a company’s practices.
But it means homeowners may want to hang onto receipts tied to the septic system for a while.
“We’ll go to the owners, and if they have a copy of an invoice from that inspection that was done, we’ll take that from the owner, and at least that gives us evidence that they’ve done their job,” Goodfriend says.
A public hearing on the plans to allow inspections as a pump-out alternative is expected in September.
