Opinion: Leelanau County board wisely votes to protect fresh water and public health from septic pollution | Opinion

By Best Plumbers On Sep 4, 2022

Prussia

In August, the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners voted to mandate the Benzie-Leelanau County Health Department to draft an ordinance requiring inspection of septic systems when transferring or selling a home. The bipartisan vote to approve this ordinance came after years of bitter debate and unsuccessful attempts at passage.

The vote was a hopeful sign of progress, demonstrating an understanding that failing sanitation systems can affect surface water and groundwater locally and nationwide, potentially impacting communities with avoidable harmful economic, health and environmental consequences.

Scientific studies have found that human fecal contamination affects 100% of our river systems in the Lower Peninsula and that substandard, faulty or non-existent sewage systems are the primary cause of human fecal bacteria found in our rivers and streams.

A study this year found that up to 27 percent of all septic systems in Michigan homes may be failing.

The Great Lakes around Michigan contain 95 percent of all fresh water in the United States and 84 percent of all fresh water in North America. Leelanau County, a peninsula within a peninsula, has the most freshwater coastline of any county in the Lower Peninsula.

Notably, Michigan, located in the heart of the Great Lakes, is the only state without a state statute setting minimum standards for the construction, maintenance, and inspection of wastewater treatment plants. Counties and local governments had to step up and enact local ordinances to recognize that requiring septic tank inspections would help identify faulty systems, protect groundwater, reduce the migration of contaminated sewage into our beautiful lakes, and improve property values to protect.

The good news is that despite daily signs of bitter polarization in our politics, our community’s concern for protecting our Great Lakes is a deeply shared value, an important area of commonality that bridges the political divide — as confirmed by the Leelanau County vote Board of Commissioners. The state of Michigan and the US Environmental Protection Agency have also designated September 19-23 as SepticSmart Week and are providing materials to encourage homeowners and communities to inspect and maintain their septic systems.

For Love of Water (FLOW), the Traverse City-based legal and policy center, has focused on the protection of groundwater and its relationship to Great Lakes water quality. FLOW’s recent work includes creating and facilitating the Michigan Groundwater Table, an 18-month collaboration between local government organizations, state agencies, environmental and legal organizations, and the universities of Michigan to identify key groundwater protection strategies and recommendations for submit their implementation.

One of the findings of the groundwater table is that, by and large, the performance of wastewater systems is in fact an infrastructure issue.

With the influx of state and federal funds aimed at supporting water infrastructure, this may be a particularly opportune time to reconsider statewide solutions, including low-income support provisions, to address substandard systems.

In the meantime, hats off to the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners for recognizing that the protection of our Great Lakes’ extraordinary natural features, unique in the world, is an environmental, economic and public health imperative.

About the author: Skip Pruss is Legal Counsel at For Love Of Water (FLOW), a not-for-profit Great Lakes legal and policy center based in Traverse City. Pruss formerly headed the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth.