Troubled Water: Wells aren’t regulated and septic tanks aren’t inspected – TCPalm

Vero Beach's hybrid septic-sewer systems drastically cut the cost of hooking homes up to sewer. Video by Jim Waymer. June 1, 2016. Wochit

Cornelius Kossen (left), of the city of Stuart Public Works, Utilities Division, and Holwinster Alexis install a grinder tank at a home on Osceola Street on Feb. 9, 2015, in Stuart. The system grinds sewage which is pumped through a 1.25-inch hose also buried in the yard into an established sewer line.(Photo: ERIC HASERT/TCPALM)Buy Photo

ABOUT THIS SERIESThis report is part of the Troubled Water project produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 initiative, a national investigative reporting project headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. TCPalm provided the local information.

Most of the 43 million Americans who rely on privatewells dont know if their water is safe to drink because unlike the regulation of public water systems, there is no government monitoring of wells.

The responsibility lies with owners, many of whom never test their wells because of cost, disinterest and a lack of knowledge about what could be in groundwater.

Yet their wells could be contaminated by substances such as arsenic or uranium from bedrock, nitrate and manure runoff from farming, or human waste from the well owners own septic systems.

Water quality experts Leslie DeSimone and Bruce Lindsey of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program told News21the water in millions of wells is likely to be contaminated. In 2009, DeSimone conducted a study for the USGS and found that 23 percent of surveyed private wells were contaminated. She said these figures remain reasonably representative.

Lindsey added that its more likely that (groundwater) concentrations are moving slightly higher.

National figures like 23 percent mask the fact that some places are better than that and others are worse, Lindsey said. Especially for private well owners, the responsibility is almost always on them to test and treat their water, which many don't do.

MostFloridians are served by public water systems covered byfederal and state safe drinking water laws that require routine testing; but about 12 percent gettheir water from private wells or "limited-use" public water systems, such as wells shared by apartment house residents.

Under an arrangement with regional water management districts, state health department offices in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties inspect the construction of private wells andlimited use public wells.

After that, the health department recommends but doesn't require private well owners have their systems inspected once a year for contaminants including bacteria, arsenic, radon and lead.

The department does inspect limited-use public wells annually and requires owners to test for bacteria every three months.

"We don't see a lot of problems," said Todd Reinhold, Martin County environmental health director. "If bacteria is found in a well, we'll require the owner to add disinfectant."

Jane Disney of Maines MDI Biological Laboratory saidgetting people to test their wells is an unending challenge in high-risk areas, where they could be drinking anything from bovine feces to arsenic.

We wont let parents bring a baby home from the hospital unless there's a car seat in the car, but you can take a child home to contaminated well water, Disney said. People either need to see an economic crisis or a public health crisis or something that they can point to before they take action.

Read more: For the complete Troubled Water project, visit troubledwater.news21.com.

We dont drink the water, Surry, Maine, resident Mike Miltner said of his private well. He added that he does absolutely nothing to filter the water.(Photo: Fionnuala O'Leary/News21)

Mike Miltner, a carpenter who lives with his wife and two children in rural Surry, Maine, told News21he knows the family'swell contains naturally occurring arsenic and radon. But he said they can't afford to spend anywhere from between $5,000 to $10,000 on a well filtration system.

Many Americans who get their drinking water from private wells also dispose of their human waste in septic systems on their property. Only seven states regularly monitor septic systems after installation. When septic systems fail, sewage can back up into homes, flood backyards and sink to the base of wells, contaminating drinking water.

Personally, Im concerned, said Zachary Lowenstein, an environmental scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency. We need that data to talk about what the concern is and where in the country we may or may not have a strong septic population. So its really just a big data gap right now.

In Florida, the health department inspects all septic systems when they're installed. After that:

Calls from neighbors about smelly septic system, possibly from a faulty drain field, are common.

"We probably get a call a day," Reinhold said. "Of course, not all are valid."

In 2010, the Florida Legislature approved a law requiring septic tank inspectionsevery five years, but repealed the measurejust two years later.

In areas where proper wastewater treatment is rare, regulation is not enforced "because a lot of people just cant afford to get a system that works, said Mark Elliott, a civil engineer and researcher at the University of Alabama. In the South in particular, he added, Many of them are living in conditions similar to before outhouses came in 120 years ago.

Leslie Bean is from Wilcox County, Ala., where most rural residents rely on septic systems that often overflow and spill into the source of their drinking water.(Photo: Michael M. Santiago/News21)

Id rather drink water of the creek than drink the water from here, Leslie Bean said of his community in Wilcox County, Alabama.

Although rural areas generally have a high rate of domestic well use, the numbers vary. In New Hampshire, more than 46 percent of people rely on wells compared to 17 percent in West Virginia and just 6 percent in South Dakota, according to a national sampling of states by News21.

In New England, 55 percent of people in Vermont and 57 percent in Maine have domestic wells.

In addition to filtration systems for wells, home septic systems can be expensive. New systems cost between $2,000 and $10,000. Fixing pipes and tanks as they age can cost more.

Altogether, this can create an insurmountable financial burden for low-income families. And maintaining a working septic system is especially difficult for families in places with poor soil conditions and insufficient drainage.

Several septic-to-sewer programs are underway along the Treasure Coast, mostly to keep contaminants out of the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon rather than for human health concerns.

About 120,000 septic tanks are in use alongthe Treasure Coast.There are as many as 600,000 septic tanks in the five counties along the Indian River Lagoon, including those on the Treasure Coast.

Septic tank pollution contributed to the 2016fish kills in the Banana River and the northern lagoon. While septic systems contributed to the algae blooms in the St. Lucie River last summer, the algae came from Lake Okeechobee discharges.

News21 reporters Jenna Miller and Fraser Allan Best and TCPalm reporter Tyler Treadway contributed to this article.

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Troubled Water: Wells aren't regulated and septic tanks aren't inspected - TCPalm