David Daski | Mar 08, 2017


Last fall I had the displeasure of unearthing and reburying four septic tanks on three properties I own in the township. Each one is radically different from the others and yet they all perform their function. Only one of the four is located close to an active water body and neighbours. The others are not. And only one of the ones, not near water or neighbours, had a problem that had to be rectified. The outflow pipe had come disconnected and the effluent flowed into the ground. This had no noticeable impact on drinking water or even the functioning of the waste system, and I was unaware of the problem till the tank was pumped. I fail to see how, in cases where there is no impact on neighbours or waterbodies, a person's septic system is any of the township's business. What scares me even more is the arbitrariness of an inspection regime. I could easily see an inspector complaining about the construction of one or more of my tanks, simply because it is not to today's standards.

It strikes me that ill-thought out regulations such as these only help speed the outflow of population from our township.

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