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Lake Elmo Agenda Section: Planning, Land Use and Zoning No. 96 City Council October 3, 2006 Agenda Item: Septic Pumping/Inspection — Ordinance Amendment Background Information for October 3, 2006: Chapter 700 of the City Code prescribes that all private septic systems in the City, (well over 2,000) are required to be pumped every 2 years. Washington County (and many other municipalities) have similar requirements — usually a 3 year interval. As (again) with most other governments with similar requirements Lake Elmo has not been as aggressive as intended toward enforcement of the 2 year pumping requirement. We have had an excellent dBase monitoring system to track performance, but less than effective follow-up when the monitoring system detects non-compliance with the 2 year rule — until recently. With a more aggressive recent effort to attain the 2 year compliance (at least notice of non-compliance), staff has heard from several property owners stating that single person or 2 person households often generate so little septic volume to septic tanks that pumping every two years becomes serious "over kill". While there appears to be logic to that contention, staff also contends that the 2 year strategy is not only intended to assure septic tanks are pumped but to also identify potential septic failures from the reports required of the septic pumper by the City. Even if a system is not actually pumped every 2 years, we believe it was one intent of the ordinance to have some manner of periodic third parry septic system inspection. It has been suggested that a simple inspection and report of findings every 2 years could be substituted for the actual pumping — if not pumping is found to be required. Perhaps such inspection could be carried out by one of the septic pumping firms licensed by the City, or a State -certified Septic Inspector. If the inspection revealed a need to pump, the pumping would still be required. We have attached a simple ordinance amendment that would permit certified septic inspections or licensed septic pumper inspections to constitute compliance with the 2 year pumping law. Action items: Motion to adopt Ordinance #97 - amending Chapter 700 of the Person •es onsible: r tt�� City Code to permit substitution of licensed or certified septic inspections for septic pumping every 2 years where such inspections find no septic pumping is required. Attachments: M Time Allocated: 1. Draft Ordinance #97 - Amending 2 year septic pumping requirement.