Unregulated septic systems, a public health threat lurking underground

By Joe VanderMeulen

Sun contributor

Are you hearing a gurgling sound from the toilet? Is the tub or sink surprisingly slow to drain? Or, even worse, is there a patch of constantly wet and stinky grass in your yard?

Those are all signs that something might be wrong with your home or cottage septic system. 

We may not want to talk about what happens to what we flush down the toilet, but this has become a hot topic of conversation in Leelanau County and many parts of northern Michigan. People across the region are asking what’s the best way to assure that private onsite wastewater treatment systems—or just septic systems—are working properly to protect human health and the environment.

A leading researcher in the regulation of septic systems, Grenetta Thomassey works for the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council in Petoskey. She points out that the State of Michigan calls on regional health departments to guide the design and siting of private septic systems, but that’s it.

“Once those new septic systems are installed there is no legal requirement to ever look at them again—ever,” Thomassey said. “They go in the ground and no one ever pays any attention to them again. Through our research we discovered that most of these systems have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years. So, if they’re never being looked at again, how do we know if they are living that long?”

In fact, there is no statewide regulation that calls for the maintenance of private septic systems. And that’s become a topic of big concern for people working on protecting water quality.

Glen Lakes Association biologist Rob Karner says that septic systems can be a major source of nutrients and other pollutants to the lakes in Leelanau County. Still, many people, including visitors and new residents, don’t know they depend on a septic system to handle their wastes.

“People are out of their element because it’s all underground,” Karner said. “So, if you have a septic problem, people often don’t know about it and if they do know there’s a problem, they don’t know what the problem is.”

Karner says efforts to inform and educate owners on how to care for their septic systems are helpful, but not enough. He says, there should be a full inspection of these systems at some frequency to be sure they are working properly.

“Fortunately, in Glen Arbor, we have a township ordinance that requires an inspection upon transfer of title. The theory being that you don’t want to take a failed septic system, have a sale pending, and you’ve got all this money in the transfer between seller and owner, but not repair the broken system. Why not get the system fixed and roll the costs into the mortgage?”

Apparently, not everyone agrees with this approach. Leelanau County commissioners have refused the call to adopt a countywide time-of-transfer septic system inspection ordinanceon at least two occasions over the last six years—even with big crowds of supporters calling for it at their meetings.

Speaking for the Leelanau County League of Women Voters, Tricia Denton says Leelanau County Commissioners appeared to question the need for a countywide ordinance that might just benefit waterfront property owners. However, the League understands that failing septic systems can pose problems wherever they are.

“There’s evidence that it’s a public health threat.” Denton said, “Threatening people’s drinking water, water wells, and groundwater.”

Public concerns over the impact of septic systems on water quality were heightened five years ago by a report co-authored by Dr. Joan Rose, a research microbiologist and internationally recognized wastewater expert at Michigan State University. In a recent interview, Rose explained that her team measured water quality parameters in 64 rivers across the Lower Peninsula. Using a DNA testing technique called quantitative polymerase chain reaction(qPCR), they found evidence of human fecal matter in all the rivers as well as an important correlation.

“Low and behold,” Rose said, “clear trends emerged. One of them was a relationship between this human marker and the number of septic systems. The more the human marker in a watershed, the more septic tanks there were.”

Rose said this evidence shows that we have been underestimating the potential for septic systems discharging to the soil to impact our groundwater and surface waters.

One of the big concerns with septic systems is the potential release of household chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and pathogens, including bacteria and viruses that can make people sick. Modern septic systems that are properly sited and working well do an excellent job of removing pathogens, according to Dr. Mark Borchardt, a research microbiologist for the USDA in Wisconsin. However, septic systems that have a 99% removal rate, can still release large numbers of pathogens.

“What we have seen in the studies we’ve done,” Borchardt said, “is that the greater the number of septic systems, whether they’re failing or not, the more likely it is that people become ill.” 

Last summer, three Leelanau lake associations participated in a first-of-its-kind sampling exercise to see if evidence of septic system wastes might also be found in the water of their lakes. Ron Reimink, owner of Freshwater Solutions, agreed to work with a small group of volunteers to sample the nearshore waters of Lime, Little Glen, and Little Traverse Lakes using qPCR to look for evidence of human sewage. According to the report release last fall (2018), duplicate water samples were frozen and sent for analysis by a laboratory at the University of Alberta.

Reimink and his colleagues at the University of Alberta extracted and amplified the DNA recovered from each water sample using a specific marker called hf183 found only in human gut bacteria.

“What we found on each lake,” Reimink said, “is that there were areas with low levels of hf183, the human enteric bacteria.”

Karner believes this new research confirms that at least some septic systems around the lakes are not working properly. The testing result, he says, “definitively proves that we have human sewage going into our surface waters.”

Karner points out that Benzie County Commissioners adopted an ordinance requiring the inspection of septic systems when properties change or at the time-of-transfer. He’s hoping that the new information emerging about septic system impacts on human health and the environment will move Leelanau County Commissioners to act as well. “But if the county doesn’t want to do this,” Karner says, “then let’s go township by township to get the protections we need.”

That approach seems uncertain, but there has been movement. Like Glen Arbor Township, the Village of Empire adopted an ordinance in 2013 that requires time-of-transfer septic system inspections. After seeing the water sampling reports last fall, Cleveland Township also adopted a time-of-transfer septic system inspection ordinance. Apparently, discussions are also underway in Empire and Kasson Townships.

This reporting is based on a new mini-documentary video to be presented at the second annual Clean Water Symposium hosted by Leelanau Clean Water on Wednesday, June 19, at the Leelanau School in Glen Arbor. The video will also be published on NatureChange.org later this month.

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