Septic System Maintenance Management

Abstract

Traditionally, the maintenance of on‐lot wastewater disposal systems has been the responsibility of the homeowner. This paper examines the potential for management of on‐lot systems by a municipal or regional management agency. Such management, because more frequent inspection and pumping of on‐lot systems would occur, promises reduced ground and surface water pollution and reduced potential for public health hazard. Furthermore, such an arrangement can reduce the costs of inspections and pumping on a per‐system basis due to possible economies of scale and management efficiencies. This paper also estimates the annual fee required to support municipal septic system management, with and without the assumption by the municipal agency of all repair, replacement, and rehabilitation costs for the systems under its management. These latter costs are estimated by combining a statistical analysis of failures and repairs over the past 36 years in Amherst, Massachusetts, and the reported costs for typical repair and replacement actions.