Saturday, November 16, 2013

Peoria County Board Approves Septic Tank Pollution Control

I started this debate back in 2004 or 5 when I was on the Peoria County Land Use Committee so I am pleased that the board has finally approved this control of septic tank overflow pollution similar to my proposal and my relentless pursuit of passage of this pollution control act. There were, at the time,  approximately 13,000 septic tanks in the county unregulated. Many people who moved from sewer controlled locations to septic tanks on their new ownerships were often surprised that most septic tanks overflowed and polluted the land and water near them. I pressed for an inspection of these tanks every 3-5 years.  Due to the efforts of Peoria County Board Members, the State of Illinois, passed a similar bill recently.

To cut mailing costs, I recommended the paperwork be tied in with the mailing of property tax bills and that other costs to all taxpayers be offset by fines to those who did not turn in an inspection certificate.

Pollution inspection controls were contested by many of those with septic tanks who were already properly attending their tanks so I do not know exactly how the wording of my proposal ended up in this new regulating pollution bill..

Anyway, thanks, Peoria County Board members for helping control a major source of pollution

3 comments:

Martin Palmer said...

"major source of pollution"
?
City of Peoria overflows millions of gallons of Raw sewage to the river. People swim ,boat and do other things in the river. Septic systems add less to the total pollution problem than any other system or lack of system. I for one have a septic system and it functions exclent. It has a chlorine contact system but never discharges. Now the FEDERAL EPA wants to regulate Private surface discharge systems. But if you read the law ,the federal EPA only can regulate water that discharge to protected waters of the USA. Most if not all systems do not discharge and even if they do it most likely never leaves the private property (mine will not). All the government wants is our money. Ahha More government. Hell the state of Illinois EPA does not want to do anything with this whopper of regulation. The PCHD does not want to deal with the paperwork either for the feds.
If it is a local problem with septic systems the lets let the PCHD deal with it.

Merle Widmer said...

Martin thanks for taking care of your septic tank. A majority don't.

You talk about sewer overflow. So have I only I did it on my blog site were several hundred people read it. It is not "hidden" fact but an inept group of politicians have stalled the overflow correction because the 'correction' is estimated to cost Peorians $100 to $300 million as a fact I quoted in my blog.

You talk about what the county is going to do and the extra cost. Not one dime of extra cost. All the septic tahk user has to do is turn in a certificate that they have a self-cleaning system like you indicate you have. That certificate should be turned in with their property tax payment.If they don't have a system like yours and they don't have their old systems cleaned every 3 to 5 years they are polluters and much more than the Illinois River pollutes Peoria County as the effluence from the sewer flows toward the gulf not towards Peoria. I was only concerned about what Peoria County does. I had no influence in what the politicians down in Springfield or in D.C. might do. You have more influence than I do as I have done mored than most to improve Peoria County.

Have you and your neighborhood group appeared before the Peoria City Council to protest the sewer overflow? If so, did it do any good? And when willl the City start spending the $100 to $00 million or are they counting omn the state or feds to do it? Hmmm. If not, why not?

But actually, I no longer give a damn what Peoria does or does not do. If my wife hadn't been the severe alcoholic (she is trying to stop drinking on her own since late August) we would not be owning a home in the northern part of the country.

However, I will continue to present facts which is a greater contribution than the overwhelming majority of citizens do. And take the criticism which few people in Peoria ever had to take. However, again, I am going on 89 and and to quote other, frankly I don't give a damn what people think of me personally. Most of my real friends; well, I've outlived them. And I still play winning tennis 3 times a week and enjoy Florida sunshine if not their money grabbing schemes to try to bolster their poor economy especially in Sarasota.

My wife and kids love me and I plan to be a thorn in a lot of big-wigs sides and those who think they are big-wigs lives for many more years to come.

Thanks for your comments. I suggest you run for a political office where your voice MAY be better heard.

Martin Palmer said...

I for one don't have a problem with peoria county government or the health department. The problem I see is the FEDERAL E.P.A. sticking there nose in private septic systems that have a surface discharge. System. As I read the Federal regulations the water must discharge to protected waters. So how can they regulate private non protected waters that never reaches off private property?
All this is a "pay / tax"