Septic System O&M Program Rolling out in Troy

March 27, 2024 by Allison Wilson

The rollout of Geauga Public Health’s Operation and Maintenance Program will soon reach Troy Township, Environmental Health Director Dan Lark said at the trustees’ March 19 meeting.

“There’s a state mandated program that we have to roll out called operation and maintenance where we have to start tracking maintenance on every septic system throughout the whole county,” Lark said.

O&M rules were passed both as a public health measure and to minimize pollution, per GPH’s website, gphohio.org.

The 2012 Clean Watershed Needs Survey report says 31% of household sewage treatment systems in the state are experiencing some degree of failure.

All systems in the county should be enrolled in the program by 2030, Lark said.

Spray irrigation and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems are the current focus.

The rollout occurred in three phases, starting in November of 2023 with Chardon and Chester townships. The current — and third — phase encompasses Troy and 10 other townships.

This phase is likely to only affect 20-30 households in Troy, Lark said.

“Over the next five years, we’ll end up meeting with everybody in the county at some point to remind them to get their tanks pumped and send us a receipt of the tank pumping,” he said. “That kind of stuff will be the kind of maintenance required in a lot of the systems.”

Lark encouraged anyone impacted by the rollout to attend public meetings and ask questions.

About 1,300 people with these systems have been enrolled, yet only about 40-50 people have shown up to meetings, he noted.

The program is state mandated, not state funded, so operation permit fees have been established, according to the program overview, which is available online.

Individuals with systems that require sampling can also expect to pay sampling fees.

“I know a lot of people have leach fields in town. So, if they’re working alright, they’re fine?” Trustee Sharon Simms asked, to which Lark replied, “Yes.”

“So, every five years or so, just take a septic tank pumping receipt,” he said. “And the pumpers are supposed to send those to us already.”

A man in the audience questioned how often inspections would be, to which Lark responded GPH does not have the staff to do inspections.

Another man asked if the systems currently under the rollout had been causing problems with contamination.

Lark confirmed systems had been failing and putting out untreated sewage, often due to a lack of maintenance.

“That ‘For Sale of Property’ program that was in place the last 20 years, those were failing at almost 40% of those systems,” he said.

Another man asked if residents would ever be forced to replace septic tanks.

“The only way we can make anybody replace something is if we can prove a public health nuisance,” Lark said, noting this is state law.

On another topic, Simms asked about the line powering the Troy Volunteer Fire Department station well, which lost power prior to the trustees’ February meetings.

“Can we go ahead and get that electric line fixed so it’s not across the parking lot for months and months?” Simms asked.

“I would recommend we don’t,” trustee Len Barcikoski replied, noting that burying the line would be expensive.

“If we’re gonna bury that line, we might as well forget about a new well,” he said.

Burying the line would cost $8,000, both Simms and Barcikoski said.

While the line could be buried, road contractor Bob Humr said they would have to tear up the parking lot to do so.

Simms asked if it would be possible to run the line through an already existing culvert pipe in order to get it off the driveway.

“We can take a grate off and bring that wire up through the grate, but we still gotta get it from the ditch enclosure to the building so they don’t mow over it,” Humr said.

The trustees are currently waiting on a grant for a new well.

As the timeline is uncertain, Humr warned about going through the effort of moving the line.

“I just hate to go through all that problem and then find out we got the grant, they’re gonna put a new well in,” he said.

Fire department Interim Chief Nick Bushek said power at the station well is fine for now.

Humr said the line may be hit when mowing starts back up, but he would look for a way to hide the line.