Agenda - 11-19-1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

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V, government to take responsibility for the sewer line. First, a local government must be convinced that the public welfare is served by its participation in the process to provide the sewer service. Second, the local government must be very careful about setting precedents that could cause it to be deluged by requests that it become the owner of private sewer lines for one reason or another. When there may be other alternatives to local government involvement, even though these alternatives may involve significant expense on the part of the owner, a local government may choose not to become involved. In the situation involving the Duke Forest Mobile Home Park, the City of Durham has agreed to receive the waste flow but has refused to accept ownership or responsibility for the line. Orange County has, in the past, been a participant in solving sewer disposal problems within the County. The County's actions in two such situations resulted in the construction of the Efland sewer system and the force main between Carden's Mobile Home Park and Stoney Creek in the area along US 70 between Hillsborough and Durham. Obviously, County's involvement in the Efland sewer system project came about in response to a. set of circumstances which involved a far greater threat to the public welfare than is the case at Duke Forest Mobile Home Park. The situation at Carden's Mobile Home Park situation was very similar to that of Duke Forest Mobile Home Park. Carden's had a discharging septic tank /sand filter system that discharged into a highway drainage ditch which DEM had defined as a zero flow stream. In the Carden's situation, untreated waste water flowed from the mobile home park, under the highway, across a neighbor's property and pooled behind the neighbor's home. DEM was ready to issue a permit for the construction and use of a package treatment plant to replace the sand filter system but was going to allow the point of discharge to remain in the highway ditch. The affected neighbor would have gotten cleaner sewage flowing through his yard and pooling behind his home, but he would -still have a sewer discharge on his property. The County, by agreeing to accept formal maintenance responsibility for the force main was able to convince the park owner and DEM to divert the discharge to a stream 1400 feet east of the existing discharge. It is interesting to note that the new receiving stream was also classified as a zero flow stream. To protect itself from potential future maintenance expense for the force main. the County also required that the owner of Carden's enter into an agreement with the County whereby the owner was to be held responsible for all maintenance and repairs to the force main. If the County had to expend any funds on the force main. those funds could be recovered from the owner by means of a lien attached to the mobile home park property.