Opinion
A Serious Blow to Loudoun's Public Health
By Sally Kurtz (D-Catoctin), Loudoun County Board of Supervisors
[Feb. 20, 2001] Del. Dick Black struck a serious blow to Loudoun County public health policy through the State Senate's Committee on Education and Health on Thursday, Feb. 15. We watched as Delegate Black presented his report and supported it with a lobbyist from the building industry and a representative of the private consulting industry. Black's HB 2726 "Health; on-site sewage evaluations" rescinds the county's power to require Health Department reviews prior to issuing construction approvals for septic fields. HB 2726 passed the committee and went well on its way into a building industry law geared to have innocent consumers the potential losers.
Currently Loudoun County recognizes onsite individual wastewater systems as viable, low-cost, long-term approaches to wastewater treatment as long as they are planned, designed, installed operated and maintained properly. Countywide there are 13,000 on-site individual wastewater systems. Homes in the rural areas of my district are predominately constructed with individual wastewater system. New subdivisions with as many as 30-40 of them are constructed at the time.
These onsite wastewater systems are not temporary installations that will be eventually replaced by centralized sewage treatment service. They are permanent approaches to treating wastewater for release and reuse in the environment. That reuse includes the groundwater that residents pump from their wells to drink. My house is older, so I'm operating my second onsite septic field, have been for 17 years. The longevity period for these fields is 20-40 years.
Until Del. Black's bill sailed through the General Assembly, local ordinances required a Health Department site visit to verify consultant reported paperwork conditions. Before any construction started, checks were performed for seasonal water tables, rock or other restrictions, soil conditions which might in the long term lead to increased groundwater contamination or premature system failures. Historically, 20-30% of the applications submitted by consultants has been found during these on-site reviews not to be an accurate reflection of the site and not appropriate as proposed.
After systems were approved consumers could expect that the Health Department's signature on the approval of such proposals actually provided an accurate degree of credibility and relieved the consultant from liability.
Now unless the Health Department has the manpower (paid for at the local level) to strictly adhere to General Assembly mandated time lines, the site is automatically approved. That approval places the homeowner in a potential situation where they are heavily invested in a lot, a house and sewage disposal system constructed before the health department sets foot on the property for the first time. If Health Department staff find problems at this late stage in the development process the homeowner, through no fault of his own, may find himself with an unacceptable system and a house on hold. Makes for interesting legal issues, which of course will also be the burden of the homeowner.
Through lobbyists in Richmond, Virginia's building industry had an easy time changing local health policies . The intent wasn't for the long-term protection of the consumer or for the over arching issues of environmental protection for the whole community. The building industry demanded expediency over long-term public safety and found a ready audience of legislators willing to do their bidding.
- extreme. ineffective. dick black.