State Tracks Down Illegal Cesspools
R.I.
Cesspool Act of 2007 went into effect this year
By FRANK
CARINI/ecoRI.org News staff
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| A cesspool is nothing more than a covered pit that receives wastewater and allows it to drain into the surrounding soil. Brick and concrete blocks do little to treat wastewater or protect groundwater. (Town of Charlestown) |
All
cesspools within 200 feet of the Ocean State shoreline have been illegal for
two months. The Rhode Island Cesspool Act of 2007 gave homeowners until Jan. 1
of this year to remove them.
About 40
percent of Rhode Islanders get their drinking water from groundwater sources or
from small local reservoirs, and obsolete cesspools are a major source of
pollution to these water supplies. Rhode Island banned cesspools in new
construction in 1968, but there are an estimated 25,000 or so still actively in
use, including nearly a thousand in high-risk areas, such as on the coast.
Of the
945 in violation, 504 of the properties have replaced their cesspools with an onsite wastewater
treatment system —
likely a septic system — or have connected to public sewer, according to Jon
Zwarg, a senior environmental scientist with DEM. Of the remaining properties,
more than 300 are in the permitting pipeline to be replaced. They technically
are illegal at the moment, but will be replaced when the weather improves and
the ground warms.
The
remaining 100 or so properties are in violation, for one of three reasons:
property owners who are simply ignoring or willing to fight state law; summer
residents who haven’t yet received any of the three DEM notification letters;
or they are homeowners living on a fixed income who are afraid they will lose
their house if they are made to upgrade from a cesspool.
Zwarg said no one will
lose their home because of this law. He said the goal of the law is not to
punish people, but to improve wastewater management, especially in areas
vulnerable to public health and environmental risks.
The law includes a hardship provision, which
gives those with limited financial resources an additional five years to
replace their cesspool.
“Most
people just want to know what they need to do,” Zwarg said. “They understand
the importance of supporting clean water.”
Low-interests
loans also are available to help property owners replace phased-out cesspools,
as connecting to the local sewer system or installing a septic system can be
expensive. The average cost to replace a cesspool with a septic system is
typically between $10,000 and $15,000. The average cost for a sewer tie-in is
between $1,000 and $2,000.
Many of
Rhode Island’s existing cesspools are connected to old housing stock in the
shoreline communities of Westerly, Warwick, Portsmouth and North Kingstown.
Warwick and North Kingstown, along with Tiverton and East Providence, are
looking to extend the reach of their public sewer system.
Three
municipalities — New Shoreham (Block Island), Charlestown and South Kingstown —
have local requirements in place to replace all cesspools, not just those
identified under state law.
For more
than a decade the state had been grappling with adopting a law that would
eliminate this substandard method of waste removal. “Cesspools are an
antiquated method of sewer disposal,” said Brian Moore, DEM’s chief of
groundwater and wetland protection. “Cesspools offer no protection or treatment
of waste.”
Rhode
Islanders generate about 150 million gallons of wastewater daily, according to
theRhode Island Clean Water Finance Agency. In many
areas of the state, wastewater is collected at 19 municipally owned treatment
facilities and purified before it finds its way back into the state’s
waterways.
But
nearly a third of Rhode Island’s households dispose of sewage and wastewater
into cesspools or septic systems buried under their own backyards, often on
property that also contains well water for drinking and bathing. Many of the
systems used by those 135,000 or so households are either inadequate or
failing.
Save The
Bay has blamed cesspools and, to a lesser extent, failing septic systems as the
main contributors to beach-water pollution. Cesspools, which are often nothing
more than perforated steel buckets buried in shallow pits or a hole filled with
rocks, allow sewage to flow under and above ground into storm drains and vital
waterways.
Greenwich
Bay is a shallow 5-square-mile cove in which water doesn’t circulate adequately
with Narragansett Bay to flush out pollutants, It is surrounded by one of the
most densely built communities in the state. Impervious surfaces are
omnipresent, and several local neighborhoods have balked at mandates to
eliminate cesspools.
Those
who have upgraded from illegal cesspools and those paying for sewage service
are footing the bill for keeping the Ocean State's waters clean. The tourism
industry and shellfish operations lose money when beaches and shellfish beds
are closed because of unsafe levels of pathogens
in the water.
“It’s
important that we protect our water,” said Donna Hutchinson, a North Smithfield
resident who is frustrated that some of her neighbors still have cesspools. “These
illegal cesspools use our soil and water as a litter box. There’s nothing in
place to effectively enforce the law. If we don’t have a plan to enforce, we’ll
be looking at scofflaws for years.”
Moore
admitted that there currently isn’t a finalized approach to the compliance
issue, but he said those who haven’t yet complied will eventually be held
responsible.
“We
don’t want to be rewarding people for dragging their feet and willfully not
participating,” he said.