Managing Onsite Wastewater Disposal Systems

Problem

Goals and Objectives

Changes: Some objectives were re-worded improve clarity and readability. Four new objectives were added to clarify actions needed to meet stated goals.

Goal 5.1. Prevent public health threats and environmental degradation from on-site wastewater disposal systems.
Objective 5.1. Enforce the provisions contained in Title 5 regulations such as siting and design, inspection and upgrades, training, maintenance, mapping, and designation of nitrogen sensitive areas.
Objective 5.2. Encourage boards of health to adopt local regulations to ensure and/or improve environmental and public health protection to meet local needs.
Objective 5.3. Improve management and oversight by municipalities of onsite wastewater disposal systems.
Objective 5.4. In areas where advanced nutrient removal is required, evaluate and compare the benefits of community scale alternative technology systems to individual alternative systems.
Objective 5.5. Encourage towns to track septic tank pumping frequencies and to remind homeowners to pump their septic tanks at appropriate frequencies. (New)
Objective 5.6. Encourage and promote ongoing research on new alternative onsite wastewater disposal systems that more effectively remove nutrients. (New)
Objective 5.7. In areas around freshwater ponds, where excess phosphorus is causing reductions in surface water quality, promote strategies and technologies to reduce the phosphorus loading to the pond. (New)
Objective 5.8. Encourage research on innovative strategies to remove or sequester excessive phosphorus loading from eutrophic freshwater pond sediments. (New)