Controversy Behind Alternative Septic Systems in Rural Areas

WASHINGTON, D.C. February 27, 2009 – The latest story from the Center for Public Integrity’s Land Use Accountability Project, The “Soft Underbelly” of Development?, examines the controversy behind alternative septic systems in rural areas and the impact they are having on future development, property rights, rural heritage, and public and environmental health.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that a quarter of all American homes and a third of new developments are served by conventional or alternative septic systems. The alternative systems – essentially advanced wastewater-treatment regimes - allow developers to build in rural areas where ground conditions make it impossible to operate conventional septic systems. But the alternative systems require careful maintenance and frequent inspections; alternative systems have proven prone to failures resulting in discharge of effluence into groundwater and drinking water.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, officials recently imposed a five-year ban on approving alternative septic systems – but the Virginia General Assembly, under pressure from builders and developers, is poised to overturn the county’s ban. Rural communities across the country face similar challenges – including a broader debate over whether prohibiting these systems is really about or public health or limiting growth.

Amy Reinink is a free-lance journalist working with the Center for Public Integrity’s Land Use Accountability Project . Reinink’s investigative reports on land use in Florida and Maryland have won several awards, and her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Gainesville Sun and The [Easton, Maryland] Star Democrat. 

The goal of the Center’s Land Use Accountability Project is to expand the discussion of local land-use issues to make this a truly national story, where the experiences of communities throughout the country are coupled with others. To that end, the Center will be covering development stories nationwide involving small communities and developers and the challenges of protecting our national heritage while permitting appropriate growth and examining these local experiences and “connecting the dots” in order to illustrate today’s national land use story.
The Center for Public Integrity  is a nonprofit, nonpartisan and independent digital news organization specializing in investigative journalism and research on significant public policy issues. Since 1990, the Washington, D.C.-based Center has released more than 475 investigative reports and 17 books to provide greater transparency and accountability of government and other institutions. It has received the prestigious George Polk Award and more than 32 other national journalism awards and 18 finalist nominations from national organizations, including PEN USA, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Society of Environmental Journalists, and National Press Foundation. In 2007, the Society of Professional Journalists recognized three Center projects with first-place online awards — the only organization that year to be recognized with three awards. The Center has been honored with the Online News Association’s coveted General Excellence Award, and a special citation for the body of its investigative work from the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.