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Contact Person(s):
David Martin,
Environmental Health Director
(tel) 906-635-1566
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Chippewa County lies over fractured bedrock and limestone making its groundwater resources vulnerable to contamination. Contaminants can travel with water through fissures in the overlying rock to enter aquifers underneath or further away. For example, an investigation of a water-borne illness afflicting Drummond Island residents in the mid-1990s found the source of the illness to be bacteriological contaminants from failing septic systems in the county.
Located on the shores of Lake Superior, Chippewa County is also a popular vacation destination. For the past fifteen years, demand for lakeshore properties has risen dramatically. Yet, many of these properties lie in environmentally sensitive areas. Continued lakeshore development coupled with the underlying geology increases the risk of groundwater contamination.
According to David Martin, Chippewa County's Environmental Health (EH) Director, requests for on-site sewage permits tripled in the past ten years. Because many of these properties lie in environmentally sensitive areas, Martin noted that the majority of requests should be denied. However, he also acknowledged the political reality that most of the properties would be developed regardless because of their high value. The alternative of connecting many lakeshore properties to municipal sewers is too costly. To protect the county's groundwater resources, the Environmental Health Department responded by amending the county's sanitary codes to allow the installation of alternative on-site sewage systems suitable for lakeshore areas.
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Revising the county's sanitary code and implementing a new on-site sewage management program posed challenges for county health officials. First, officials needed to revise the codes to facilitate the identification and use of alternative technologies. The old codes used site conditions to determine the suitability of a site for conventional on-site systems only. Health officials wanted to move away from this framework to one that relied on performance standards to determine site suitability. Within this framework, the key question is could the proposed technology, whether conventional or alternative, meet the standards established by the new county sanitary codes?
Second, the new performance-based codes shifts the responsibility of monitoring on-site wastewater systems from the homeowners to the EH department. To carry out this new task, the department needed to develop and manage a database on all on-site sewage systems in the county and to give staff additional training.
Third, county health officials needed to generate support from local and county officials to get the resources necessary for implementing the new on-site sewage program. Also, they had to overcome some resistance from industry groups to changes in the sanitary codes.
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The open-minded and progressive attitudes held by the EH staff facilitated their efforts to revise the sanitary codes, said Martin. According to Martin, these attitudes originated with his predecessor who believed that new technologies could provide solutions to some of the county's wastewater management problems. He and Ted Loudon, a MSU professor in the department of agricultural engineering, were among the first to test the feasibility of sewage waste lagoon technology for single family homes. When Martin joined the department, sanitarians routinely attended workshops, training sessions and conferences to keep up with new wastewater treatment technologies. Since he assumed the directorship, Martin has continued with this practice.
A study of the hydrogeology of the eastern Upper Peninsula (1990-1995) funded by the Kellogg Foundation contributed to the development of the project. Martin used the Clean Water Act as a model for revising the sanitary codes and for determining appropriate performance standards. He also looked to the Idaho Technical Manual for Alternative Technologies for Sewage Treatment to identify acceptable alternative technologies. The new framework gives variances for alternative technologies that meet the performance standards established by the new sanitary codes.
Martin noted that educating public officials and industry groups about alternative wastewater treatment technologies was critical for getting their support for the revised sanitary codes. Health officials made a point of inviting local officials to join the county's well drillers and septic system installers to training sessions hosted by the Department. Also, health officials kept public officials and industry groups abreast of all code changes during the revision process.
The EH department enjoys a good working relationship with local government officials and industry groups built upon fifteen years of regular communication. Health officials have met regularly with township associations, county organizations and industry groups. Whenever possible, sanitarians schedule meetings at township, village and city halls to have the opportunity to meet with local officials informally. Sanitarians also participate in workshops and training to allow them to "rub shoulders" with well drillers and septic system installers. The relationship between the EH department, local government and industry has played a role in the department's success at gaining support for the new sanitary codes.
Efforts to revise the health codes were consumer-driven, a fact not overlooked by elected officials. Developing lakeshore properties is an expensive venture. Aware that their properties lay in areas not suitable for conventional on-site systems, developers and homeowners did not simply request permits but looked for and demanded alternative technologies that they could use.
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The new on-site sewage maintenance program enjoys considerable support from local officials, residents and industry groups. Martin commented that the program is supported completely by local funds. The County Board of Commissioners has responded positively to most of the Department's demands for additional resources. The Department also generates funds through higher service fees. With the additional resources, it has upgraded its computer facilities and continues to send staff to workshops and training on new technologies
Since implementation of the new program, no further bacterial contamination has been detected. Today, on-site sewage systems in use in the county include recirculating systems, single-pass filter systems, sewage waste lagoons, mound systems and conventional systems. The Department is also collaborating with Lake Superior University to evaluate artificial wetland systems for on-site wastewater treatment at six sites throughout the county. A continuing problem, however, is monitoring older conventional systems.
The Department is also working with five other environmental health departments in the Upper Peninsula to develop a regional set of sanitary codes, the first in Michigan. For the past three years, the Upper Peninsula Superior Code Committee comprising the Marquette county, Western Upper Peninsula, Delta-Menominee, Iron-Dickinson and Chippewa county EH departments has met monthly. Currently, the committee is identifying acceptable alternative and experimental technologies.
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