Relief for homeowners experiencing failing septic systems may not come for a few years, but the Marshall County Commissioners took the first step Monday morning in working toward that goal.
Health Board President Dr. Byron Holum urged the commissioners to move forward with a preliminary engineering study to assess those unincorporated areas in need and prioritize them in order to make an informed decision on how to tackle the issue of failing septic systems.
Ken Jones from Jones, Petrie and Rafinski said the report would be in compliance with IDEM’s standard with the formation of a Regional Sewer District. Following the study, Jones said it will be quite a while when construction of a sewer district comes to reality.
“Doing the study and advancing the formation of a district doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to pull the trigger on a project in 2020,” said Jones. “It could be more than a few years from now before you’re able to actually get to that point.”
Tippecanoe Township Trustee Matt Pitney believes that the sooner county officials act on this, the better.
“We currently have five houses that were built in a flood plain at some point and they all appear to be in a failing sewer state. We also have many houses in the Blackford Addition that we don’t’ know what shape their septics are in and they have no room to replace their septics when they do fail. When I say I have no idea, they may be pumping straight into the river! To me, that’s a public health crisis there if there ever was one,” stated Pitney.
Jones said JPR will structure the study so that it will be eligible for USDA, OCRA or Indiana Finance Association funding.
After much discussion, Commissioner Stan Klotz made a motion to move forward with presenting the funding request to the county council at their meeting on June 10, but put the money in the budget for 2020 and go forward then. The motion was not seconded. Commissioner Mike Delp later made a motion to ask the county council to fund the $50,000 county-wide study by JPR as soon as possible, which was seconded by Klotz. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.
The entire discussion can be heard during the Maximum Impact program on Sunday at noon on MAX 98.3 FM.
