Monday, November 29, 1999
Lawmaker targets bad septic systems in efforts to save farmland
BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — When state Rep. Gene Krebs set out to save rapidly disappearing farmland, badly operating septic systems quickly drew his attention.
Their immediate effect is obvious: health and environmental problems.
The longer-term impact is the loss of farmland, said the Camden Republican who represents most of Butler County and all of Preble County.
Where septic tank systems have been permitted despite soil that prevents them from operating properly, local governments often respond by ordering the installation of sewer lines.
When that happens in farming areas, Mr. Krebs said, farm market values rise so much that economic pressures often impel farmers to sell their land to developers.
“Whenever you run sewer and water lines by farms, agriculture is no longer the land's highest and best use,” he said.
Another consequence is higher tax rates, Mr. Krebs said, because sewer extensions require tax payer money to build.
Preservation is a special concern in Butler County where development has overtaken more than 60,000 acres of farmland.
Mr. Krebs is promoting state legislation to address the issue and a Butler County advisory group recently told county commissioners how they might save farmland.
Recommendations included prohibiting a type of septic system that has a history of failure and has required the extension of sewers.
Commissioners will study the report and decide what action to take.
Mr. Krebs is supporting proposed state legislation to establish minimum standards for household sewer disposal systems. It would set procedures for local boards of health to follow in evaluating septic tank permit applications and testing septic systems.
The legislation, introduced in the Senate earlier this year, is sponsored by Sen. Robert Gardner, R-Madison.
“It recognizes that county boards of health don't always do a superb job,” Mr. Krebs said. “It gives us more tools and more oversight over them to bring more accountability.”
Mr. Krebs had started to develop a proposal on septic tank regulation when he discovered that Mr. Gardner already had completed a bill.
A recent story in the Ohio Journal of Science underscores Mr. Krebs' concerns.
It concluded that local health departments' programs evaluating and testing on-site sewage “lack uniformity, modern practice and technology, and do not have in place a system of checks and balances to protect the public health from approval of inadequate sewage treatment systems.”
Counties need to realize the long-term problems that develop from improperly permitted septic systems, Mr. Krebs said.
“When you have sewer and water lines streaking out across the county, you want to make sure they are there as a result of good planning and not because of bad septic systems.”
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