Agenda - 08-01-1989 - Laserfiche WebLink

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-------- 29 main reason the Planning Board voted 4-3 against the project on the issue of public _- safety and health and welfare. During the discussions at the Planning Board meeting, it was recommended that the county hire an independent consulting engineer to study alternative wastewater systems and the viability of allowing them in rural areas of the county. In April, 1988, the Commissioners hired Hazen & Sawyer to do such a study. In August, 1988, that study was presented to the County Manager. One of the statements from that study said "the technology of alternative treatment systems is technically sound and can also be a reliable method of wastewater treatment and disposal if properly designed, constructed and operated." It appears, from the comments Paul Thames made, that he is in need of more information from their designer, since he felt the system was poorly designed. Also, OWASA made the comment that the existing regulations controlling the operation of these systems were not sufficient. However, the Hazen and Sawyer report states, "the design criteria of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Management and the North Carolina Department of Human Services, which review the applications are generally adequate to insure acceptable operation of all alternative systems". He stated that although they were very anxious to bring this matter back before the Board of Commissioners, the Planning Staff recommended that they wait until after the Board had adopted the Water and Sewer Policy. That policy has been adopted and it states "the elimination of administrative and informative barriers to the use of safe, sanitary alternative waste water treatment systems within the county should be encouraged." The policy also states, "the use of these systems will be permitted, consistent with the applicable laws and regulations, only in a few conditions. One of these conditions applies to McLennans's Farm. That is, land unsuitable for conventional wastewater treatment systems and not served by public sewer facilities. He stated that the two policies that came out of the county in the last year, the Hazen & Sawyer Report and the Water and Sewer Policy, both state that these systems should be utilized where feasible. To deny a project simply because it is in a watershed would impact a substantial part of Orange County. Public water and sewer is not available to this project. To arbitrarily deny this request is not fair. Finally, he commented that there were many differences between this project and the Amberly project. These differences include size, design, and monitoring plans. MR. CRAIG MORGAN, the consulting engineer for this project, indicated that the important question is how wastewater treatment will be handled in a safe manner in the watershed area. Morgan indicated that he designs residential low pressure pipe systems in Orange County, as well as large cluster systems on the beach. In Orange County most residential low pressure pipe systems have an excess of 800 or 900 linear feet of pipe and more likely in excess of 1200 feet of pipe for a single family residence. It is true that the smaller the system, the better it may be to limit the flow. However, larger systems are designed hydrologically. They are balanced hydrologically and they work on a uniform basis. He stated that he had a number of large systems on the beach that are balanced to a uniform pressure of 2 feet of pressure with a balanced differential of less than 4 inches. He indicated that if the subdivision was approved for 15 lots, it did not necessarily mean that it is going to be a 15 lot subdivision. The size is determined by the maximum, safe capacity of the draining field. If that is only for 5 houses, then that is all that could be designed. It is possible that one house or some bedrooms may have to be dropped from this plan. He stated that the big problem appears to be in trying to convince everyone that these types of systems are safe. The Hazen & Sawyer people reviewed a number of large, low pressure pipe systems in the state of North Carolina. They found that the overwhelming evidence of system failures were the result of operation and maintenance performance. He stated that he believes that the operation and management structure which is being set up for McLennan Farm is the most sophisticated that has ever been used in Orange County for Subdivisions. The proposal calls for the system to be clustered with a centralized it(