Wayne Twp. hosts three-township discussion of sewer ordinance

McELHATTAN - It was a tedious, belabored assault on a suggested piece of legislation, but it was exactly what three Clinton County townships were hoping to achieve.

Representatives from those townships finally got the answers they were looking for and used those answers to fine-tune a draft ordinance at a special work session of the Wayne Township supervisors last night, despite the fact that no one from the state Department of Environmental Protection showed up.

Due to a communication error between Wayne Township representatives, it was unclear if anyone had even invited the state officials from Williamsport to clarify a letter sent to each township on Sept. 5, calling each body to action regarding Act 537 plans.

Imagine the relief of those present when Alan Zeigler showed up on behalf of Larson Design Group, with many of the answers being sought. LDG is the engineer for the upgrades to be made to the Pine Creek Sewage Treatment Facility, required by a separate but relevant aspect of the recently updated Act 537.

He addressed some of the townships' most time-sensitive uncertainties right away, starting with what kind of response each township is expected to provide DEP regarding a letter sent to supervisors in Dunnstable, Pine Creek and Wayne townships early last month.

The letter, dated Sept. 5, gave township officials 60 days to respond, but didn't clearly dictate the type of response requested. Zeigler said they must respond by Nov. 5 with their proposed changes to a draft ordinance, also referred to as the Act 537 plan, that accompanied the letter.

The Act 537 plan would require residents with on-lot septic systems in each of the affected townships to have those systems inspected every three years and pumped or otherwise updated if determined necessary through the inspection.

Only three residential developments and a few other residences are connected to the public sewer system in Wayne Township, leaving about 392 residences vulnerable to the proposed ordinance. A majority of Dunnstable and Pine Creek township residents also have on-lot systems.

Wayne Township Solicitor Paul Welch later added to Zeigler's interpretation that it was his understanding, based on a conversation he had with a DEP representative after the Sept. 17 supervisors' meeting, that the department would prefer to see the changes sooner rather than later and that they intend to approve the amended plans on or shortly after Nov. 5.

Zeigler also clued the supervisors in on the remainder of DEP's timeframe for the Act 537 plan. "According to DEP's compliance schedule, each township must adopt the ordinance within two months of the department approving the Act 537 plan," said Zeigler. That would give each township a deadline to approve the ordinance of somewhere around Jan. 5, if the plans were approved on Nov. 5.

Also sitting in on the work session were Robert O'Connor Jr., solicitor for Pine Creek Township and Wayne Township Sewer Authority; John Boileau, solicitor for Dunnstable Township; Jeff Kreger, sewage enforcement officer for Dunnstable, Pine Creek, Wayne and other townships in Clinton County; Dennis Norman, Wayne Township engineer; and several Pine Creek Municipal Authority board members. The PCMA representatives remained relatively silent, though, allowing the solicitors to dominate the discussion.

"We wanted to get all three townships together tonight because we're trying to generate continuity between the townships on this ordinance," said Jim Maguire, Wayne Township supervisor.

He explained that public sewer customers in all three townships are affected by other stipulations of Act 537 because of their connection through the Pine Creek Municipal Authority, so supervisors from the three municipalities felt that residents with private on-lot septic systems should also be bound by regulations consistent among the townships.

Not unlike the way Wayne Township supervisors reacted to a Sept. 5 letter from DEP, last night's crowd dissected the draft ordinance. The three solicitors led the discussion, picking apart the draft section by section and item by item, while frequently calling on Kreger and Norman for their knowledge of current regulations and the sewage industry.

Many of the changes made to the draft were relatively minor, often as simple as removing the word "permit" in certain places and replacing the word "may" with "shall." Other changes would have a significant impact on how the ordinance is executed.

Among those changes, the group agreed to:

- Change the time period during which each township would require the initial inspection of each on-lot system from the suggested 12 months to three years, targeting a third of the township's population each year.

- Eliminate the term "registered septage haulers" from the draft, thus eliminating the requirement for said haulers to be registered with each township in order to provide service to customers within that township. Kreger said he believed septage haulers are required by DEP to have permits, making it somewhat redundant to also have them register in each township.

- Replace the word "resident" with "owner" or "land owner" to more clearly define the party responsible for the inspections and updates to the systems.

- Indicate that each township would provide a list of authorized agents to conduct inspections. That list could include local home inspectors or septage haulers who complete training provided by the SEO. More than likely it would not include the township SEO or assistant SEO, as suggested by DEP, because of liability issues.

- Add language noting that owners might have to have their septic systems pumped before being inspected if the baffles aren't easily visible through the waste.

- Remove a clause declaring owners would pay a $10 administrative fee to the township in order to receive the checklist needed for inspection. Instead, the solicitors opted to set the fee by township resolution, allowing the township to change the fee as needed without having to amend the entire ordinance.

- Changed an item to reflect that hearings for appeals of final inspection decisions will be scheduled within 45 days, rather than 14 days, of written receipt of the appeal and will be scheduled for either a regularly scheduled supervisors meeting or a special meeting of the supervisors.

Several items were deleted from the ordinance because they were redundant, unnecessary or would be inapplicable based upon other changes the solicitors made. As a result of one such deletion, every owner would be required to have their system inspected, even if they could provide proof it had been inspected within three years of the affective date of the ordinance.

The solicitors also discussed the creation of an inspection checklist based upon a list of factors defined by DEP in the draft ordinance. That list includes a description of services provided by the septage hauler, a statement concerning the condition of the septic tank and its inlet and outlet baffles, disposal location of any septic materials removed from the tank and a statement noting whether any system malfunctions were observed.

They decided not to pursue that task because they thought DEP may have already compiled those factors into such a checklist. However, they agreed that such a checklist should be used to initially determine what is considered a working, acceptable septic system, rather than age of the system or whether a permit was issued for the system to be installed.

Two solicitors took on the tasks needed to follow through on the fruits of last night's labors. Welch said he would ask DEP officials if the townships needed to explain within the ordinance that they plan to implement the required initial septic system inspections over a three-year period. Meanwhile, O'Connor said he would begin drafting the ordinance with the changes agreed upon at the meeting.