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Septic Regs Would
Address Complex
Set of Circumstances
Will ACC become the third local government
in Georgia to require regular maintenance
or inspections of septic tanks? The county's
6000 individual tanks haven't created obvious
problems, but commissioners fear that leaking
tanks could degrade water supplies—and if
(as appears likely) they decide not to build a
new sewer line along Sandy Creek, then future
development north of town could depend
instead on more septic tanks.
And the tanks can give trouble, says
Keli Hinson of the Northeast Georgia Health
District, which approves the initial installa
tion of septic tanks (and also issues repair
permits—44 so far this year). When they
operate property, solids in the tank are par
tially digested by bacteria, and liquid overflow
filters into the soil thru an underground drain-
field. 'Typically the life expectancy of a septic
system, if everything works as it should,
should be 20 to 30 years," Hinson says. But
"there are systems out there that are 40 or 50
years old that have never failed."
"Systems fail for many different reasons,"
she explains. Tree roots can clog the drain-
field pipes, or they can break—perhaps
because someone drives over them—or the
soil becomes clogged over time, especially if
a homeowner puts grease or trash into the
system, says Hinson. Too much water (per
haps from plumbing leaks) can also clog the
drainfield.
Tanks should be pumped out occasionally
to remove solids and grease; the state recom
mends pumping every three to five years, but
"that's just a general guideline. People who
don't put garbage in their system probably
don't have to pump it out as much." Larger
tanks are required for homes with garbage
disposals, she sats; but "I've seen houses
where... things that don't fit in the sink,
they'll flush down the toilet."
Most counties now require new home lots
to have enough space to install a second
drainfield in case the first one ever fails. In
ACC, that means that nearly 700 small lots in
tfie area between Commerce and Danielsville
roads are now "substandard." They will need
to be rezoned to larger lot sizes if commis
sioners decide not to build the Sandy Creek
sewer line.
Mostly, new sewer lines are built to serve
future development in an area, says ACC
utilities director Gary Duck. Only one line has
been extended in ACC in the past 20 years,
he says—in an area beyond Athens Technical
College—and new sewer lines don't normally
reach into existing subdivisions, anyway. But
in one Athens subdivision—East Meadow,
built off Cherokee road about 1960—numerous
septic tanks had failed by 1985, according to
Henson, apparently because a high water table
saturated the drainfields. Such mass failures
are rare; using federal grant money, the county
then ran sewer lines throughout the subdivi
sion and connected all the homes.
Overflowing septic tanks are typically more
of a problem for the homeowner than for the
county. Occasional overflows from county
sewer lines have more potential to pollute
waterways than do septic tanks, but commis
sioners on the Legislative Review Committee
will soon consider whether to recommend
required inspections or regular maintenance
. of the tanks—like pumping—or perhaps an
educational campaign to head off problems.
A pilot study by ACC used aerial infrared pho
tography to locate pollution sources along
three streams in the county. "There weren't
any major violations that we saw," stormwater
coordinator Ryan Eaves told the committee
last week. The committee also heard how
"advanced systems" that pretreat wastewater
on-site might serve some developments if the
Sandy Creek sewer line isn't built.
John Huie
Start Time Nears
for Rail-Trail
Construction
Within several months, construction of a
small downtown park could mark the begin
ning of the long-planned (but expensive)
1.2-mile "rail-trail" that was initially planned
to follow the path of an abandoned railway
from downtown to Winterville road, crossing
the Oconee river and Trail Creek atop three
bridges.
In 2004, voters approved S2.3 million
to design and construct the bicycle and
pedestrian path, including "construction or
reconstruction" of the bridges whose dizzy
ing heights the trail would follow. But even
with additional federal grants, the project as
originally described is far more expensive than
budgeted.
Two of the bridges had already been torn
down, and the "Murmur* trestle—made famous
by its depiction on the cover of R.E.M.'s first
album—is "unsafe," according to SPLOST proj
ect administrator Derek Doster.
"It would have to be fixed up" at a cost
of up to $3 million—money that's not in the
budget at this point, although an additional
S7.7 million was recently recommended by the
current citizens' SPLOSl committee, and could
be approved when the new cycle of projects
goes before ACC voters in November.
When CSX, the railway company that
owned the tracks and right-of-way, decided to
demolish the abandoned bridges, ACC at first
expressed no official interest in buying them,
citing their poor condition and bureaucratic
delays by the railroad. But when the railroad
actually began tearing them down in 2000,
then-mayor "Doc" Eldridge got emails from
R.E.M. fans worldwide, asking him to save the
"Murmur" trestle. That preservation campaign
was successful, but the other two bridges
(across the North Oconee River and Peter
Street) were already gone.
ACC commissioners will hear staff reports
on the rail-trail at their July 13 work session;
as a condition of a federal grant, some money
will soon be spent to buy right-of-way and to
build a small park at the trail's starting point,
across from the Multimodal Transit Center on
East Broad Street. Then, if voters approve the
additional sales-tax money, the bridges will be
reconstructed and the sky-trail built (the rock-
and-concrete piers still jutting from the North
Oconee river could support a new bridge,
Doster says).
If not, an alternative plan with no trestles
would take a less-exciting route to the
Greenwa/s Wilkerson Street overtook, and a
second, unconnected segment would reach
from Dudley Paik out to Winterville road.
John Huie
AVTD W. GRIFFETH,
L Attorney
tinnounces the relocation <>i hi.s law office
to Downtown in the Fred Building
. 220 College Avc. Ste. 012.
Ath<*ns. (Georgia
(706) 353-1360
. Admitted to the Bar of the United
States Supreme Court since 1976*
♦And lesser courts
Specializing in Personal Injury, Wrongful Death,
Criminal Defense, Credit Card/Debt Relief, DUI,
Drug Cases and more.
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