Something foul in standards for septic systems?

A commissioner says Carver County is not living up to its own rules that require costly upgrades.

By HERÓN MÁRQUEZ ESTRADA, Star Tribune

Last update: September 26, 2009 - 8:51 PM

Janet and Lowell Carlson are scheduled to go to jail Thursday, because they won't repair the septic system at their Norwood-Young America farm so that it is no less than 36 inches from the underground water table.

The couple was ordered to fix the system in July, at a cost of $10,000 or more, because it violates state and federal laws. But they say that Carver County is skirting the same issue -- a lack of adequate separation between drain field and groundwater -- at a $2.5 million ballroom it bought at a park near Lake Waconia.

"It's hypocritical," said County Commissioner Tom Workman, who voted for the purchase in 2008 but said he changed his mind once he found out about septic problems on the site.

"We're putting people in jail for doing the same thing we are doing."

The controversy has been roiling Carver for most of the year and heated up during the summer, when Workman insisted his that fellow commissioners do something about it.

That hasn't happened. In fact, despite Workman raising some thorny questions, County Board members in August voted 4-1 to reaffirm the purchase and their confidence in the septic system's soundness.

Proponents of the ballroom purchase, part of an upgrade to the Waconia Regional Park system, say Workman is trying to put political pressure on Commissioner James Ische as he prepares to seek reelection next year.

"I do think they are trying to create a campaign issue against me," Ische said.

He and Commissioner Tim Lynch, who also supports the purchase, wrote a letter to the Waconia Patriot last month saying that the ballroom ruckus is being generated by "conspiracy theorists."

"We've had it checked out and it passed," Ische said of the septic system. "I don't know what else to do."

But Workman points out that the man who inspected and passed the system for the county is the same one who installed it at the ballroom.

Workman also said that the inspector did not dig down to inspect the septic system's distribution box and measure the depth at which the drain field pipe exits the box. Instead, according to a county memo, he went out in July to gauge the groundwater's depth and separation from the septic system. Workman points out that July was a very dry month, and that a previous measurement had showed the groundwater level significantly higher than the inspector found.

What Workman and others want the county to do is dig down to the box and measure how far it is from the water table.

The type of system in question, which operates by gravity, is used in about 4,600 homes in Carver County. Workman and others estimate that 3,500 or more are not in compliance.

Double standard?

When new separation rules went into effect in 1996, the county grandfathered in existing systems, but required that they eventually be fixed -- usually by placing the distribution system into a mound at a cost of $10,000 to $15,000. The county since had required that the upgrades occur when a property is sold or requires a building permit.

That trigger should have gone off in the case of the ballroom when it was sold last year to the county, Workman said.

That is what has upset people such as the Carlsons and Bruce Schwichtenberg, a Chaska resident who has become something of an expert on septic systems after a prolonged fight with Carver County authorities concerning problems with his own system.

By law, he and Workman say, a septic system cannot be closer than 36 inches above the high-groundwater mark. That distance is considered the minimum gap needed to ensure that groundwater is not polluted by the effluent in the septic system.

By their calculations, Workman and Schwichtenberg say the septic system at the county's new ballroom is 8 inches too close to the water table and should be fixed.

Math seems fuzzy

"Their numbers don't add up," Schwichtenberg said. "The system, because it doesn't pass, is polluting Lake Waconia. ... And they're not doing anything about it."

Workman said he is considering calling the state Pollution Control Agency, the Department of Natural Resources or the federal Environmental Protection Agency to deal with the matter if the county won't fix the system.

He said other county officials have tried to keep him from inspecting the system. The County Board sent a memo to Sheriff Bud Olson in June asking that he have deputies conduct extra patrols around the septic field to keep people from digging into it to take a closer look.

Workman did it anyway.

In June, as TV news cameras looked on, he dug around the distribution box and found that the pipes came out of the bottom, which he said confirmed his belief that the system is out of compliance and that his fellow commissioners are avoiding the issue because it would cost the board $200,000 or more to fix.

Days after Workman inspected the site, Dave Drealan, director of the county Land and Water Services division, wrote in a July 2 memo that news footage "clearly showed pipes extending from the bottom of the box."

But, he wrote, "The construction of the drop box does not necessarily mean that the system is out of compliance." Workman says the county is relying on the groundwater depth its inspector measured in July, rather than a level recorded in the past, which he says was around 65 inches and would require repairs to the system.

This position has added fuel to the criticism from Workman and others about how the County Board is handling the situation.

"How come the county doesn't fix theirs?" Janet Carlson asked.

"Our system has better separation than they do at the ballroom.

"It's a double standard. What a bunch of baloney."

Heron Marquez Estrada • 612-673-4280