Onsite sewage facility

Municipal facilities may also collect runoff from roadways, which contains traces of all the various chemicals used in vehicles such as brake fluid and engine oil, and those used in melting ice and snow.

[3] Each province and territory has its own norms and regulations concerning the design and installation of onsite sewage facilities, such as whether a permit is required to do so and how to obtain it, the type, size and location of the system (usually according to on-site soil characteristics and other factors), etc.

Public health and environmental protection officials now acknowledge that onsite systems are not just temporary installations that will be replaced eventually by centralized sewage treatment services, but permanent approaches to treating wastewater for release and reuse in the environment.

Onsite systems are recognized as viable, low-cost, long-term, decentralized approaches to wastewater treatment if they are planned, designed, installed, operated, and maintained properly (USEPA, 1997).

NOTE: In addition to existing state and local oversight, decentralized wastewater treatment systems that serve more than 20 people might become subject to regulation under the USEPA's Underground Injection Control Program, although EPA has proposed not to include them (64FR22971:5/7/01).

Few programs address onsite system operation and maintenance, resulting in failures that lead to unnecessary costs and risks to public health and water resources.

Moreover, the lack of coordination among agencies that oversee land use planning, zoning, development, water resource protection, public health initiatives, and onsite systems causes problems that could be prevented through a more cooperative approach.

Effective management of onsite systems requires rigorous planning, design, installation, operation, maintenance, monitoring, and controls.

In the 1996 Clean Water Needs Survey (USEPA, 1996b), states and tribes also identified more than 500 communities as having failed septic systems that have caused public health problems.

The discharge of partially treated sewage from malfunctioning onsite systems was identified as a principal or contributing source of degradation in 32 percent of all harvest-limited shellfish growing areas.

Onsite wastewater treatment systems have also contributed to an overabundance of nutrients in ponds, lakes, and coastal estuaries, leading to the excessive growth of algae and other nuisance aquatic plants (USEPA, 1996b).