Agenda - 11-03-1997 - 10a - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 ` MEMORANDUM TO: County Commissioners John Link, County Manager COPIES: Mary Willis, Planner III Ron Holdway, Environmental Health Director FROM: Paul Thames, PE, County Engineer DATE: October 27, 1997 SUBJECT: Brookfield Drive on-site wastewater treatment system problems On 18 September 1997, in accordance with the request of Commissioners Brown and Halkiotis, I accompanied Commissions Brown and Halkiotis, Mary Willis of the Planning Department and Ron Holdway of the Health Department on a site visit to the Brookfield Drive area. The purpose of the inspection was to view, first hand, some of the individual on-site wastewater treatment systems that have been reported as failing or otherwise inadequate. Several Brookfield Drive neighborhood residents that live in homes served by treatment systems reported to be failing met us on site and accompanied us on at least a portion of our walk through the neighborhood. Our first stop was at 1229 Brookfield Drive, an owner-occupied residence served by a discharging sand filter. The resident informed us that the NC Division of Water Quality(DWQ -the permitting agency for discharging systems including sand filters) has recently required that she apply for a discharge permit and make minor improvements to her system(add chlorine spikes for effluent disinfection). The discharge pipe from her sand filter terminated in an open ditch in front of her home. Records maintained by the Health Department showed that the dwelling immediately to the east, 1235 Brookfield Drive, also has a sand filter system. It appeared that the discharge pipe from this sand filter had been connected to the discharge pipe from 1229 Brookfield, so that both filters discharged into the ditch at the same point through a single pipe. A visual inspection of the exposed end of the discharge pipe revealed a blackish particulant residue which is probably indicative of a low quality effluent with an elevated level of solids. As the purpose of a sand filter is to remove solids from septic tank effluent, the readily visible presence of the solid residue at the discharge pipe probably indicates a failure of the sand filter and/or the septic tank serving at least one of the dwellings. As we moved to the west along Brookfield Drive, we stopped at one other dwelling,1213 Brookfield, that appeared to be vacant and that also appeared to be served by a sand filter. There appeared to have been no recent flow from the sand filter system and there was no apparent evidence of sand filter/septic system malfunction. Our next stop was at 1226 Hatch Road where we talked to the owner. He indicated that no one was living in the house because the conventional septic tank system was malfunctioning to the extent that he could not run water or flush the toilet. The owner indicated that the nature of his septic system's malfunction is such that the use of his plumbing system(toilets, sinks, etc.) results in the backup of wastewater into his house, rather than the more typical surfacing of septic tank effluent in the yard. We did not see any signs of surfacing septic tank effluent nor did we enter the house to try flushing the toilets to verify the wastewater backup.