Marshall County Health Administrator Christine Stinson asked the county commissioners for support in forming a Marshall County Sewer District Task Force.
She said the time is now to get this underway when it comes to properties with on-site septic systems. She noted that an in-depth DNR study in 2005 showed that the Four Lakes in Marshall County, Cook Lake, Holem Lake, Kreighbaum Lake, and Mill Pond Lake, are contaminated with septic.
“We can no longer say that this is their problem and they have to fix it. This is a county-wide problem and we need to start looking at a solution,” said Stinson.
Stinson told the commissioners that she’s looking for support from them to start this task force to determine the need for a sewer district.
“We would like a commissioner on the task force, we would like a council member on the task force, the health department will be represented, the planning commission, the building commissioner, and some community members to be a part of it – to look at the feasibility of having a sewer district that would encompass all of Marshall County.”
She said the sewer district would have the jurisdiction to correct problems that are currently being experienced.
She explained that a year-long water shed study recently conducted by the Marshall County Soil and Water District showed that 12 sites tested over the permissible limits of E-coli.
“They DNA typed them out and thought, ‘are we having poor farming practices? Where do we need to dedicate our time? Where is the E-coli coming from?’ Some of them were more than 80 percent human E-coli. I think that if the majority of the citizens of Marshall County understood the vast amount of failures that they have they would support the need to get our waters cleaned up. I think the time is now!”
Commissioner Kevin Overmyer asked about the cost behind this effort and Stinson noted that the task force would be looking into that aspect as meetings go forward.
The commissioners gave their full support for the task force and approved a motion that would place Commissioner Mike Delp on the task force.
