The Truth About Septic Systems
(Page 3 of 6)
February/March 2008
By Lloyd Kahn
The engineers ended up collecting $500,000 for designs that were never built. That amount would have fixed all the failing systems (maybe there were 10) with enough left over to provide needed drainage for the entire town.
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Since then I’ve seen the same modus operandi in small towns country-wide. For example, there is another California town currently wrestling with a multimillion dollar rip-off of homeowners and taxpayers. In Los Osos, an ongoing $150million wastewater nightmare has homeowners facing $300 to $400 monthly sewer payments for a plan that is $50 million more expensive than the cheaper, more ecological plan many townspeople want. (For details see here, here and a video clip here.)
Monte Rio, Calif., was presented with a ludicrous plan designed to maximize profit for engineers and benefit developers. The project was recently abandoned by Sonoma County due to ballooning costs, and at least some of the local homeowners are investigating how much in government funds were spent on engineering and planning costs. (This is a win-win situation for the engineers in that they get paid handsomely for design even when their plans are unworkable.)
Small towns all over the country are grappling with similar situations.
Single Homes
It’s also happening with individual homes. For example, if your system fails (or you build an addition that prompts stricter septic requirements), you must hire an engineer to design a $50,000 (where I live) mound system instead of a simple gravity-powered system that would work just fine in most locations.
I wondered if this was just a California phenomenon, so I ran a short notice in Mother Earth News early last year asking people to contact me if they had encountered new and expensive wastewater requirements. I received more than 75 replies from all over the country.
Geauga County, Ohio: “The new mound will be larger than our house. How to pay for it? Bye-bye savings.”
Whatcom County, Wash.: “The assessor came onto my property and told me when the sewer goes down my road, he will increase my property’s tax valuation to $1.2 million dollars! I bought these 19.51 acres, with two trashed houses and a barn, for $195,000 and could barely afford the taxes on it then, almost $2,000. Now my taxes are almost $5,000, and our income has not increased at all.”
Northport, Mich.: “The firm that assessed the village’s need for the sewer is the same one that designed it and is now planning to build it.”
Spooner, Wis.: “We were planning to buy a piece of land for $6,000 where a tornado had leveled the house — until we were told we’d need a $30,000 mound system.”
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