Strategies for Rural Development in Areas with Limited Public Infrastructure: Alternative Septic Systems

Comprehensive Planning for Wastewater and Water Supply Management

There are two types of planning that relate to decentralized wastewater and water supply management entities. The first type is planning that identifies (and, if necessary, creates) the appropriate management entity for the system. The second type is comprehensive land use planning around the potential growth scenarios for a growth center, community, or region. Comprehensive land use planning can provide valuable information and support for decentralized management and regulatory programs, and it should serve as the basis for managing existing decentralized systems and permitting future installations.

Comprehensive planning provides one of the best vehicles available for ensuring that decentralized wastewater and water supply management issues are seamlessly integrated into future growth and development scenarios.  Comprehensive planning sets the overall guidance for the municipality, in terms of goals, policies, and implementation strategies.  Land use ordinances, zoning, building permits, subdivision ordinances, and other regulatory and non-regulatory approaches can and should be amended to help implement the goals outlined in the comprehensive plan.  For example, strategies in a locally adopted comprehensive plan that addresses environmental protection can be implemented through land use regulations that:

• Specify treatment performance standards for onsite or clustered systems, preferably related to each surface and groundwater resource in the area;
• Limit development on sensitive natural resource lands and critical areas;
• Direct future development toward designated growth areas that will be serviced by cluster or sewer systems, if adequate capacity exists;
• Require consideration of factors such as septic system densities, hydraulic and pollutant output, proximity to water bodies, soil and hydrogeological conditions, and water quality in surrounding wells and surface waters for all proposed new development using septic systems, as well as for septic system repairs;
• Encourage or mandate nutrient reduction and greywater reuse strategies for existing and new development in environmentally sensitive areas; and
• Integrate requirements for source water protection near drinking water sources.

One of the duties of the comprehensive planning committee is to evaluate both current and future water supply and wastewater treatment needs, and identify siting alternatives in the plan. During this process, the committee and town officials should also make planning decisions about the best uses of their identified natural resources. For example, is the “significant sand & gravel aquifer” underlying the town a potential source of drinking water that should be protected from development and negative environmental impacts? Or has this resource been contaminated in the past by an unlined landfill so that it cannot be used for drinking water, but it can still serve as a good source of extracted gravel?

Planners must consider existing and potential public health and water quality problems in the management area, carefully evaluate the physical characteristics within the community’s designated growth area, and request both qualitative and quantitative input from state regulators and the general public on the preferred locations for new development projects that will use decentralized water and wastewater systems .  Perhaps the Maine planning community could develop an evaluation protocol for new development proposals that can be used to determine whether a development project is best served by clustered or onsite systems, or some combination of the two, to meet clearly defined water quality performance standards. The performance standards would ensure environmental and public health protection, and local zoning ordinances could be revised to include both the minimum water quality performance standards for septic systems and the desirable densities for each zoning district within the town.  This protocol could be shared openly with developers to assist them in planning new developments, knowing that their future projects would be assessed by the Planning Board using those criteria.

 

Related Work Plan Components

• Climate Change and Infrastructure Resilience
• Modernizing Communications/Electric Utility Infrastructure

Workgroup Contacts

In Aroostook County: Jay Kamm, Ken Murchison, Joella Theriault

In Washington County: Judy East