The purpose of this section is to provide procedures for on-site
investigation of septic and other systems that dispose of sewage.
Testing and investigation methods may include observation, excavation,
probing, electronic and dye testing. A visual inspection will be used
to determine the need for more extensive testing. These on-site investigations
are designed to accomplish the following goals:
A.
Owners and residents of properties requiring inspection under specific
sections of this chapter are required to have either the town do the
inspection or to contract, at the owner's expense, for a qualified
design professional to perform the inspection.
B.
If the property owner chooses to have the town do the inspection,
the property owner and the resident are required to allow the Town
Sanitary Inspector to enter their property and structures located
thereon in order that a thorough, competent inspection can be conducted.
Owners or residents may determine a time for visit(s) convenient to
the Sanitary Inspector during his/her normal work day.
C.
Reasonable, safe and complete access shall be granted to the Sanitary Inspector to all rooms and spaces in homes and other structures so that the Inspector may verify the existence or nonexistence and condition of all sewage systems and any components thereof. The Inspector shall be accompanied by the owner or designated adult representative of the owner. Failure or unwillingness to provide the Town Sanitary Inspector reasonable access shall be grounds for immediate denial of permit approval, revocation of certificate of occupancy, and activation of penalties contained in § 150-18 of this chapter.
The Town Sanitary Inspector and/or the design professional will
perform a visual inspection of all systems requiring inspection or
testing under the provisions of this regulation:
A.
Visually observe all living areas and other spaces within homes and
other buildings on the property noting the layout and location of
all water-using fixtures and plumbing, including, but not limited
to, faucets, sinks, toilets, drains, overflows, laundry equipment,
floor drains and related systems.
B.
Visually inspect all basements, crawl spaces, mechanical spaces,
and other enclosed areas to observe routing of plumbing and drains
in an attempt to verify the existence and likely location of septic/sewage
disposal structures external to or under structures.
C.
Verify connection of all drains to an appropriate disposal system.
D.
Physically inspect and observe outside areas to include nearby lawns,
slopes, hillsides, ditches, watercourses, swales and the shoreline
of ponds, lakes and wetlands to note the quantity and general quality
of surface water where it occurs. Special effort should be given to
identifying evidence of likely failures/malfunction of existing systems.
A.
Where the visual inspection indicates that a system may be failing
or discharging to the ground surface or a surface water, dye testing
may be done. Dye testing involves introducing a brightly colored dye
in tablet form into the disposal system in an effort to trace the
system to surface failure or discharge. Dye testing should be performed
on systems that have experienced normal usage for 60 days or after
as much usage as possible.
B.
Under normal circumstances, poorly designed, poorly constructed,
improperly maintained or malfunctioning systems that are experiencing
surface failure will be exposed by the introduction of dye and a moderate
amount of water. Systems with these conditions will be identified
by the surfacing of the dye within a few hours or at most a few days.
Failure of a dye test is considered evidence of a malfunctioning system
requiring repair, upgrade or replacement.
C.
Even properly functioning systems can appear to be experiencing failure
if they are subjected to the introduction of excessive water at excessive
rates. Therefore, the following procedures will be used:
(1)
Only tablet forms of dye will be used.
(2)
Tablets will be wrapped in toilet paper or tissue, dropped in a toilet
and immediately flushed down the drain. The toilet will be flushed
three or four times to ensure that the tablets have moved into the
drain system.
(3)
Water will be introduced by repeated toilet flushing or introduction
of tap water at a point upstream of the toilet drain at a rate of
at least three gallons per minute. The total amount of water introduced
will be at least 50 gallons per bedroom. As an alternative, a flow
of at least three gallons per minute will be run for at least 15 minutes.
The total flow will still be 50 gallons per bedroom, and the remaining
amount (after the three gallons per minute for 15 minutes) will be
introduced at a rate of at least 0.5 gallons per minute with the total
period of the water flow not to exceed four hours. Any test over 60
minutes will require a higher fee.
(4)
The inspector will make multiple physical inspections of the outside
area of the property between three hours and one week after the introduction
of the dye.
(5)
In cases where multiple systems exist on the same site or systems
are being tested on adjacent properties, different color dye tablets
should be used in each system to help differentiate the source of
failure.
A.
The Town Sanitary Inspector will develop an appropriate form to document
inspections. Location, address, name of owner, representative present,
dates of testing/inspection, procedures used, starting and ending
times, observations and sketches showing fixture, drain and system
layout will be recorded to adequately document the inspection/test.
Required corrective action and recommended system improvements will
be noted on the inspection form.
B.
Owners (or their designated representative) will be informed of the
results and probable requirements for corrective action when noted.
In cases where there is suspected or observed failures, the owner/resident
will be informed of the results and necessary corrective action and
deadline for same by registered, return receipt mail. A copy of reports
documenting failure will be filed with the Madison County Health Department
within 24 hours. A report of satisfactory test/inspection results
will be provided to the owner/representative by regular mail. A copy
of all reports will be filed with the Town Clerk.
