It seems that you and I have been the victims of some misinformation, and since I helped spread it, I should help clarify it.  The problem is that I don’t know exactly what the truth is, and since I disseminated untruth before, I am hesitant to make broad statements.  However, I have been asked by those who apparently do know the rules to try and get people to stop calling them in a panic.  If you are a bit confused by now, welcome to the group. 

I am talking about that most exciting of topics: on-site sewage systems, also spoken of by the layman as septic systems, drainfields, leach fields, septic tanks and probably a few terms I have never heard.  New regulations governing these perhaps boring but very necessary items were proposed at the state level last spring.  They were not actually adopted at that time, and had they been adopted they would still have been subject to review and implementation by the various county health departments, so they would not have just been unceremoniously dumped on us who depend on these very necessary items.  However, if you keep as close track of current septic regulations as do I, you might have felt like they were an overnight event when you tried to do something that was no longer allowed.

But to clarify, there is no rule that says you must always have at least ½ acre to install an on-site sewage system and there are no plans to condemn homes whose systems fail and are on less than ½ acre.  With that said, I applaud those of you who took the time to check out the story with those in authority who know what the rules are.  It shows that you were trying to do what we are always told to do as citizens, which is to keep ourselves informed.  If only truth were not so elusive.

We don’t have all the answers, but we hear enough of the questions to direct you to the people who do.  If you have a real estate related issue, call us.  If we can’t help, we probably know who can.Â