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What does a rural community do when they find that a high percentage of their septic systems are failing? The traditional wisdom is to hire a consulting engineering firm to plan and secure funding for a centralized wastewater collection and treatment system. People have been told forever that septic systems are temporary and that eventually they will have to have a "real" wastewater system. But centralized wastewater collection and treatment is expensive, and without big federal grants some rural communities may find that households are asked to pay, over a period of time of course, more than their home is worth to cover their share of a a community sewer and wastewater treatment plant. A recent example of this is Sisters, Oregon. This community of about 500 homes has many low - and fixed-income residents, many living in mobile and modular homes. A central wastewater collection and treatment facility has been designed at a cost of $12 million. It is being sold to the community with the enticement that they can receive half this amount in grant money. The rest of the story is that the cost per home is $25,000 to $30,000. A second engineering opinion is that this community doesn’t really need a central system. The soils are conducive to onsite wastewater treatment and with today’s technologies improved wastewater treatment could be provided by onsite systems for about 1/3 of the price of the "big pipe".

The problem is that our society has not effectively developed centralized management to ensure care of onsite and decentralized wastewater treatment facilities. No one would build a new treatment plant and walk off and leave it, expecting it to work. But we continually install onsite systems, bury them so well that we can’t even find them later; and expect them to work. Again, technology exists to maintain onsite systems to work in perpetuity, but they must have frequent visits by a trained maintenance professional who can recognize, diagnose, and take care of problems or see that they taken care of by a contractor.

Is it really better to collect sewage and convey it to one large treatment facility where a problem may cause a catastrophic water pollution event? Why is that better than dispersed systems, where any individual failure will cause relatively minor localized environmental problems? Near older cities, is it wise to correct failed septic systems by connecting to an old leaking sewer?

If you work with a community that is being told to "do something about their wastewater problem" encourage them to consider improved onsite and decentralized treatment systems. Many consulting firms may not be prepared to make a realistic cost-benefit comparison of decentralized and centralized technologies. They may not be completely familiar with the variety of technologies available nor with how to set-up necessary management programs. The needed information is available if they search. Encourage your communities to ask questions. If you need help, let us know. We can provide information on engineering firms who have designed effective decentralized treatment systems and others who have attended our wastewater training center to familiarize themselves with available technologies.