Failing septic systems produce disease outbreaks, algae blooms, and ecosystem damage.

By Brett Walton, Circle of Blue

There are 123 million households in the United States. Nearly one-fifth of them — some 21.5 million — do not flush toilet waste to a public sewer. They use septic systems — small underground tanks that provide basic treatment at relatively low cost for areas without sewers.

Countless more businesses, churches, and community centers employ the same means of waste disposal.

And while properly maintained systems operate just fine, the other side of this waste management practice is less benign. Because of neglect, age, or ignorance of hydrological conditions, failing septic systems, entirely hidden from public view, are producing a public health and ecological mess. Oversight and enforcement of operational requirements to keep septic systems from leaking raw wastes onto the land or into ground and surface water supplies is weak across much of outer suburban and rural America where most systems are installed.

What Is a Septic System? Conventional septic systems have two parts: a tank and a drain field. The tank, which should be pumped out every three to five years, collects the toilet waste as well as the water flushed down sinks and shower drains. Solids settle to the bottom of the tank while the wastewater flows through perforated pipes into the nearby soil, called the drain field, where naturally occurring bacteria break down the suspended waste as the water percolates toward streams or enters the groundwater table. Advanced treatment options, such as aerators, denitrification units, and specialized soil filters, remove more nitrogen than the basic model.

Problems come from all directions. Hormones and pharmaceutical compounds, for instance, were found in the groundwater near septic systems on Fire Island, New York, and in New England, according to a January 2015 study from U.S. Geological Survey researchers.

Researchers with the Baylor College of Medicine are discovering a resurgence of parasitic diseases in rural Alabama because of poor sanitation and septic system failure. They will present their findings at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual conference, from October 25 to 29.

In Ohio, the state health department estimates that nearly one out of every three septic systems is failing.

Just how dangerous faulty septic systems can become was illustrated eight years ago at the Log Den, a steak-and-seafood restaurant on Wisconsin’s pastoral Door Peninsula. On June 1, 2007, three weeks after it opened, the Log Den unexpectedly closed. Two hundred eleven patrons and 18 staff members fell ill with norovirus, a stomach ailment that causes vomiting and diarrhea. The viral outbreak, in which six people required hospital treatment, was not due to the restaurant’s food. It was the water.

Though properly permitted, the restaurant’s septic system failed. Toilet wastes leaked into the ground, coursed through fissures in the soil and rock, and reached the limestone aquifer that supplied the restaurant’s water well. The foul waste mixed with fresh water used for drinking, ice-making, and lettuce-washing. The Log Den, in an inadvertent error unknown to its owner, had poisoned its own well.

Research Findings by Circle of Blue

An investigation by Circle of Blue found numerous other instances of septic systems that put homeowners and communities at risk. From New England to the Deep South and particularly in poor regions or areas with a dense clustering of septic systems near rivers or lakes, treating wastes with underground tanks and drain fields is emerging as another ruinous, and largely unaddressed, national water pollution challenge:

Degraded bays, rivers, and lakes. Nationally, some 28,821 miles of streams are designated as “threatened or impaired” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because of septic systems and pits of sewage waste — nearly equal to the number of stream-miles dirtied by municipal wastewater treatment plants and sewer overflows. Certain regions are severely affected. Sixty-nine percent of the nitrogen pollution in Long Island’s Great South Bay is from septic systems. One million people in Suffolk County, on the island’s east end, use septic systems. Because of nitrogen-fueled algae blooms, Great South Bay’s shellfish industry has collapsed, its eelgrass beds are nearly dead, and its storm-buffering salt marshes are dying.

Nationally, some 28,821 miles of streams are designated as “threatened or impaired” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because of septic systems and pits of sewage waste — nearly equal to the number of stream-miles dirtied by municipal wastewater treatment plants and sewer overflows. Certain regions are severely affected. Sixty-nine percent of the nitrogen pollution in Long Island’s Great South Bay is from septic systems. One million people in Suffolk County, on the island’s east end, use septic systems. Because of nitrogen-fueled algae blooms, Great South Bay’s shellfish industry has collapsed, its eelgrass beds are nearly dead, and its storm-buffering salt marshes are dying. Parasitic diseases flaring up in the South. Poor counties in Alabama are seeing a resurgence of hookworm and other tropical diseases because of inadequate sanitation, which includes shoddy septic systems and toilet waste that is dumped into ditches, ponds, and ravines. By some estimates, half of the septic systems in Lowndes County, Alabama are broken. Researchers are just beginning to assess the problem of disease transmission and do not yet know infection rates.

Poor counties in Alabama are seeing a resurgence of hookworm and other tropical diseases because of inadequate sanitation, which includes shoddy septic systems and toilet waste that is dumped into ditches, ponds, and ravines. By some estimates, half of the septic systems in Lowndes County, Alabama are broken. Researchers are just beginning to assess the problem of disease transmission and do not yet know infection rates. Insufficient data collection. The U.S. Census Bureau stopped collecting county-level data on septic systems in 1990 because no federal program regulates septic systems. National data is gathered every two years through the American Housing Survey, which uses a much smaller sample size. A few states, like Georgia, have initiated septic mapping programs to pinpoint areas of concern. Likewise, there is very little reliable data on how many septic systems are failing. The numbers could be huge. The Ohio Department of Health, for example, estimates that 31 percent of septic systems in the state are not working properly.

The U.S. Census Bureau stopped collecting county-level data on septic systems in 1990 because no federal program regulates septic systems. National data is gathered every two years through the American Housing Survey, which uses a much smaller sample size. A few states, like Georgia, have initiated septic mapping programs to pinpoint areas of concern. Likewise, there is very little reliable data on how many septic systems are failing. The numbers could be huge. The Ohio Department of Health, for example, estimates that 31 percent of septic systems in the state are not working properly. A hodgepodge of regulations. There are no federal regulations for septic systems. States set standards, often quite strict, for system design and installation that are supposed to be enforced by counties. Counties or towns in vulnerable or high-density areas sometimes set tougher standards. Maryland, for instance, requires nitrogen-removal technology on new buildings sited in ecologically sensitive areas or when old septic systems are replaced. Twenty-four other states have nitrogen regulations for septic. Most problems, however, begin after installation, as was the case with the Log Den restaurant.

There are no federal regulations for septic systems. States set standards, often quite strict, for system design and installation that are supposed to be enforced by counties. Counties or towns in vulnerable or high-density areas sometimes set tougher standards. Maryland, for instance, requires nitrogen-removal technology on new buildings sited in ecologically sensitive areas or when old septic systems are replaced. Twenty-four other states have nitrogen regulations for septic. Most problems, however, begin after installation, as was the case with the Log Den restaurant. Irregular inspections. Many states do not require inspections after a system is put in the ground. Maintenance is the homeowner’s responsibility. Some states, such as Georgia, do not require homeowners or real estate agents to disclose that a house is on septic when it is sold, unless there is known damage to the system. Home buyers have to know to ask. Not knowing that a home is on septic means that system maintenance will not be done until the system fails.

Many states do not require inspections after a system is put in the ground. Maintenance is the homeowner’s responsibility. Some states, such as Georgia, do not require homeowners or real estate agents to disclose that a house is on septic when it is sold, unless there is known damage to the system. Home buyers have to know to ask. Not knowing that a home is on septic means that system maintenance will not be done until the system fails. Research that is playing catch up. While there is ample research into septic system design, much less is known about the environmental and health effects of failing septic systems. Three topics are of special concern, according to researchers: 1) tracing the source of pathogens and the cause of disease outbreaks to septic problems, 2) learning more about the role that pharmaceuticals from septic systems play in water contamination, and 3) assessing how climatic changes — freeze-thaw cycles or intense rainstorms — affect the performance of septic systems.

Added up, failing septic systems and the threats they cause are a newly recognized and serious feature of the nation’s unaddressed water pollution problem. The United States already contends with the geriatric condition of America’s water infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country’s water supply and waste treatment systems a D grade in 2013. The average age of a Baltimore water main, to cite one example, is 75 years. Last week, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) proposed $US 1.8 billion in federal money over five years to help poor communities replace old sewer systems. Farm runoff, the country’s biggest source of water pollution, is now the target of Clean Water Act lawsuits. Polluted stormwater draining from cities and suburbs is a third unaddressed source of water pollution.