A series of information sessions in Lithgow’s rural areas are being planned to ease hostility over Lithgow Council’s ‘Septic Safe Program’.
State Government legislation enacted over recent years has meant local councils are now responsible for the registration of all on-site wastewater systems, the inspection of high-risk systems and to give ‘operational approvals’ (licences) for them.
Lithgow Council’s Environmental Health Officer, David Durie, told Councillors at the latest ordinary meeting about 200 septic inspections have been completed within the Local Government Area, but 60 per cent of those inspected have failed to meet basic performance and operational objectives.
“Failures can largely be attributed to poor soils and a lack of maintenance,” Mr Durie said.
He said minor failures are identified on an inspection sheet, then the owner being asked to complete the necessary works at their earliest convenience.
For more serious failures work is asked to be completed within a reasonable timeframe.
“The program is legislated and Council has a responsibility to implement the program.
“Failure rates are high, further demonstrating the need for the program.
“Where possible Coucnil works with residents and provides adequate timeframes for maintenance and upgrades of failing systems.”
Mr Durie said Council will coordinate a series of public information sessions in selected locations prior to the start of inspections.
Resident in these locations will be notified of the information sessions along with a notice that inspections will be carried out.
However, one rural resident has claimed that rarely has Lithgow Council been so bombarded with complaints, petitions and outraged letters of protest since its decision months ago to implement this scheme.
Mr Ted Docker, from Hampton, said a local plumber was co-opted for the inspections and the ‘difficulties were instantly apparent’.
“The 1993 Act specified that before an inspector was authorised to enter a premises he was obliged to give the owner due notice regarding the day of his arrival, an obviously impossible requirement in view of the vast number of premises to be inspected within a reasonable time,” Mr Docker said.
“Before long the unfortunate plumber found himself obliged to turn up unannounced, and the flak began flying thick and fast, recriminations and angry exchanges of words culminating in one home owner vowing to put a bullet through ‘the intruder’s’ brain if he dared invade his property again.
“On the Jenolan Caves Road one small property-owner occupied the same family home where he had been born and brought up and lived for the last 50 years.
“The scrupulously-mown lawns, the neatly-clipped hedges, the grove of trees behind planted as a wind-break and shade for the house, suggested a well-cared-for property.
“But not to the plumber-inspector on a recent visit.
“Beyond the house grey water from bathroom, kitchen and laundry, was piped into a garden or paddock area where it was allowed to sink gradually into the soil under the influence of the sun, the best purifier of all.
“Such had been the practice in every rural corner of the state since settlement began.
“But ‘no’, said the inspector, all waste water must now be disposed of by means of a trench that would bury it deep into the ground — though how this untreated water could possibly find its way into some distant watercourse or stream connected with Cox’s River and the Hawkesbury catchment area was beyond the property owner’s imagination.
“The excrement of sheep and cattle, pigs, kangaroos and wombats posed surely the greater risk to Sydney’s water supply.
“Even more galling was the case of another Caves Road resident who had had his home including septic tank installation constructed strictly according to council specifications only five years before.
“Now, completely out of the blue, he found himself saddled with a $70 inspection fee to be followed by a $50 licence fee to allow him to operate his septic system with council approval.
“All round the shire tempers were rising.
“Concern for the environment hadn’t appeared to worry council for the past 10 years, people said.
“Efforts to raise revenue for Council’s prodigal expenditure in other directions seemed the more likely explanation.
“To help cool the air Council undertook in the course of its last meeting on November 2 to convene gatherings of local residents where it might explain its actions and hopefully come up with some answers to hundreds of vigorous objections,” Mr Docker said.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter