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Septic system problems on private property in the Town of Washington are inadequately understood and insufficiently defined. Through the Health Department in 1997, the Town conducted a ques-, tion and answer survey of 87 property owners/residents that resulted in 27 properties reporting one or more observations that could be interpreted as symptomatic of septic system problems. The Town made no attempt, however, to conduct, with the help of the Health Department or engineering consultants, a detailed inspection/evaluation study of each property to confirm the existence and precise nature of problems. So there is no conclusive determination of how many homeowners have septic system defects and how many of those defects could be fixed with low-cost, on-site repairs, including pumping septic tanks, replacing broken pipes and cracked tanks, etc. The Town has been unable to provide rigorous data to support the conclusion that a centralized sewage treatment plant is required.
The Town’s revised Comprehensive Plan will provide for a 33 percent increase in the number of residences over the next 20 years (34 new homes). Is this level of growth necessary or desired? Every new home for the Town increases the need for a centralized sewage treatment facility and disposal of treated sewage effluent into the Rush River. And under the current plan, every new home increases the volume of effluent that must be absorbed by the Rush. How much growth is too much?
The average current daily water use for the entire Town is 35,000 gallons. The all-time peak daily use is 42,000 gallons. Does the Town need a sewage plant that will treat 60,000 gallons per day? The Town is inviting growth to fill out the capacity of a largerthan-necessary treatment plant.
The Town seriously examined just one of many possible alternatives to discharging treated sewage effluent into the Rush River. The alternative plan would have distributed treated effluent into a large underground drain field, but was eventually abandoned. Properties available to the Town for this purpose had the capacity, according to studies commissioned by the Town, to handle 55,000 to 65,000 gallons per day, with an equally large (100 percent)
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