It hasn't been too many years ago that a couple of people from Bella Vista were trying to get the Benton County Quorum Court to pass an ordinance to require the periodic pumping of all rural septic tanks in the county. The potential cost to the residents, regardless of whether the tank needed to be pumped or worked perfectly, was an afterthought to the persons suggesting the need to "protect our water supply." Numerous meetings were held including speakers from the Benton County Health Department. The situation that prompted this proposal came from some problems in an area of Bella Vista near a lake that finally was attributed to geese polluting the lake, not septic tank leakage. Hours were devoted to meetings and there was a lot of money spent, including Bella Vista Village management, before the issue was dropped. Yet another attempt to "cry wolf" by some well meaning, but uninformed, people getting the Quorum Court involved in their problem. A lot of homes were built in Bella Vista by builders who put in steel tanks -- legal at the time -- and had poorly designed drain fields or discharge lines that actually were expected to flow uphill to work effectively. No amount of pumping of working systems would correct the improperly designed and installed systems' malfunctioning.
Now it looks like we are faced with a similar situation dealing with rural septic systems. If you take the daily newspaper -- Democrat Gazette -- you might already be aware of this bit of information. However, if you are like several families we know, the cost of the newspaper as a means of keeping up with local news has led to many people resorting to television and social media sights on various appliances for staying abreast of local political activities. At least the weekly papers are still available.
Newspaper articles in the Northwest Arkansas Section B of Aug. 20 and again Aug. 26 reported a "new" septic tank proposal for control of rural Benton County residents. The object of this proposed ordinance is to tie an inspection of your septic system to the transfer of the property's deed, or the sale of the land. The Aug. 26 article refers to James Gately and realtor Larry Kelly as proposing the ordinance for the purpose of "protecting the citizen's health and safety."
Some pertinent questions we need to ask include: How many members of the current Planning Board actually live in rural Benton County and will be subject to the terms of the proposed ordinance? Where have the members of the board gone for their knowledge of sanitary systems and the manner of inspection they are suggesting? And are any actually involved in the sanitation engineering field? Were any of them on the board when the residents of Bella Vista were having their problems and proposed the yearly pumping of the septic tanks?
The proposed ordinance came from a committee of the Planning Board to the Quorum Court's Legislative Committee which has scheduled it to be discussed at a Committee of the entire Quorum Court on Sept. 8 at 6 p.m. in Bentonville.
The newspaper article did not go into specific detail about how much an inspection of a septic system was to cost nor did it indicate how you were to know if your system needed inspection. It just proposes to have the Health Department train people to inspect and approve the existing system before a sale can be completed. Can you imagine how many septic tanks will "suddenly need to be pumped" by the inspector's company or a friend in the business?
During the previous attempt to control rural Benton County's septic systems, one of the proofs presented was from a county in Pennsylvania where they required the property around a lake to pump the tanks yearly. What that had to do with Benton County, I do not know. However, one of Mr. Gately's exhibits was from Table Rock Lake and he also quoted how a leak from a faulty fuel tank had gotten into someone's well. What a leaking steel fuel tank and a concrete septic tank have in common, I don't know.
No one, rural or city, wants our source of water contaminated, whether it is our well or Beaver Lake. However, we are over very porous Karst limestone formations and no inspection is going to change that. It hasn't been that many years ago when perk tests were used to locate septic systems and it was believed that a good flow of water out of the test holes was desirable. It probably was some underground fault if the flow was too good, but no inspection yet devised is going to detect that situation.
It is frustrating that we keep trying to devise a means of controlling rural residents' lives where the cities are not involved. One quote in the paper reported that the wife of some member of the Planning Board had surveyed some homeowners in Prairie Creek and the "majority of those responding" didn't know where their septic tanks were located. Probably 90 percent of the widows living alone in rural Benton County don't know where their septic tanks are. Why should they when they work as they are designed to do? It is the failed system that causes water to come to the surface, or back up into the house, or smell up the neighborhood and that condition will be easy to locate. You don't have to wait to sell the property to discover the system has failed.
Please take time to call, or email your JP and let him or her have your comments. If you disagree with my comments, tell the JP that also. The contact information for the JPs is frequently published in this newspaper or you can find their contact information on the Benton County website.
Have a great week.
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Editor's note: Leo Lynch is an award-winning columnist. He is a native of Benton County. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Editorial on 09/02/2015