Health Unit to pull out of septic inspections

Jeff Green | Nov 19, 2009

KFL&A (Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington) Public Health has been contacting municipalities throughout the two counties to tell them of their plans to cease providing inspectors for the installation of septic systems.

Septi inspections were a mandated service of Public Health prior to municipal changes in 1998, the inspectionsadn approvals were incorporated into the building code act at that time. KFL&A Public Health were one of a handful of health units across the province that offered to continue to provide the service for the municipalities they serve, but they have decided to “divest ourselves of the service” in the words of Dave Cooke, a manager with Public Health.

Cooke said that septic inspections, which are fully paid for by the permit fee that is charged to applicants, are not a mandated service for Public Health and are becoming more difficult to offer because of pending retirements on staff and a new provincial mandate Public Health from the province to take responsibility for small drinking water systems in public halls and commercial operations.

“We do not have a fixed timeframe for this and we are meeting with municipalities to work out the transition to a municipally run service.”

Cooke said that some municipalities have already indicated they plan to take septic permitting in house as pat of their building departments, whereas others may look to contract the service out to Conservation Authorities.

The response from municipalities has been varied.

Ian Trickett, the chief building official in Central Frontenac, said it only makes sense because septic permiting is part of the building code wihch is a municipal reponsibility. Trickett said that Chrystal Nedow, who works for Central Frontenac, already has the necessary training and accreditation to do the inspections and sign the permits, and having it done in house will make it easier to co-ordinate with other permits that are required by having it done in house.

South Frontenac Township contracts septic inspections and their septic reinspection process to Public Health. They will be considering their options in the coming months with a view to having a new system in place by the beginning of the building season next spring.

However, members of the Skootamatta Lake Cottage Association in Addington Highlands Township are not happy with the prospect of Public Health pulling out of septic inspections in their township.

Rosemary Teed, who is a Lake Steward with the Skootamatta Ratepayers Association, has come forward to the Addington Highlands Council saying that Public Health is abrogating their responsibility by backing out of septic inspections.

“We believe this is very much in their jurisdiction as it is an environmental health issue and certainly a potential drinking water issue. If the job does not fit in their mandate I'm not sure what does,” she said.

Teed also said that municipalities such as Addington Highlands are ill equipped to conduct the required inspections, and may even be in a conflict of interest because they are dependent on increased development for the tax assessment they require to balance their municipal budgets.

“We have to face the fact that in small townships they are left to their own devices. If nobody is looking at the situation upfront, and there are no regualtions relative to reinspection, we are headed for another Walkerton,” she said.

Teed's position has been taken up by Addington Highlands Council. At their meeting in Denbigh on Monday Night, Council decided to write a letter requesting that KFL&A Public Health continue to do the inspections.

“We are not in the position to carry out the inspections at this time,” said Reeve Henry Hogg in a telephone interview with the News the next day, “and it would represent a liability issue for us as well. We would much prefer that Public Health keep doing them for us as they have in the past.”