Over a decade, the time-of-sale regulation “identified numerous, significant problems with wells and sewage systems that pose a threat to public and environmental health,” according to a health department evaluation.

“It’s all connected,” Cotton said, referring to the state’s waters. “Whether you build it right or not, the liquid in the septic system is recharging streams and groundwater.”

Nonetheless, the ordinance encountered opposition from those who viewed the inspections as an intrusion on private property rights and the cost of mandatory repairs as a financial strain and obstacle to selling a home. It was a classic political conundrum: individual rights against communal costs. In the end, the Board of Commissioners for Barry and Eaton counties voted in March to repeal the ordinance.

Reforms coming?

This is the status of Michigan’s septic system regulation: a convoluted patchwork of state laws, but with oversight largely carried out at the local level. The state regulates the placement of commercial systems with more than 1,000 gallons of flow per day and high-density residential areas. Single-family homes and duplexes are mainly exempt.

By and large, it is the 44 county and district health departments that regulate septic systems for single-family residential homes. The rules vary widely. Before Barry and Eaton decided to repeal the time-of-sale ordinance, 11 county health departments had such rules.

Other jurisdictions are not so vigilant. Cotton noted that some counties have no requirements to test whether the soil is suitable. Septic systems require relatively dry soils that percolate water and are not clay. The Natural Resources Conservation Service estimates that 92 percent of the state’s soils are “very limited” in their suitability for traditional, buried septic systems that use a tank and a drain field. That means specialized systems will be necessary and “poor performance and high maintenance” should be expected, NRCS says.

But few counties have such rigorous standards.

“One problem is that the rules can be as strict or as lenient as the counties want to make them,” said Terry Gibb, who runs educational programs on septic systems for Michigan State University Extension.

Cotton said that the DEQ drafted revised standards in 2013 for commercial systems. The department has accepted those standards as a final, but it is waiting on the Legislature to authorize the change. The governor’s office is also interested in an updated code. Sustaining Michigan’s Water Heritage, a document prepared by five state agencies and released two years ago, recommended a state law to require periodic septic system inspections.

Two bills that together would authorize the DEQ, in consultation with an advisory council, to write a statewide septic code were filed in March in the Michigan House of Representatives. Neither has moved out of committee.

Rep. Jim Lower, R-Cedar Lake, who sponsored one of the bills, said that was partly due to disagreements with local health departments about a provision that would have banned and repealed time-of-sale rules like those in Barry and Eaton counties.

Lower, who has seen his district’s Pine River fouled by bacteria from leaking septic systems, said that revised language would allow time-of-sale ordinances but not require repairs before the home is sold.

Lower is hopeful the septic bills will pass before the end of the session, in December, but realizes that the competition for legislative attention will be intense.

“There are a lot of bills, the session window is closing and everyone has their priorities,” he said. “But the governor’s office has said that this is a priority and we’ll try to get it done.”