Melbourne resident Lew Kontnik let his pleasure resound recently as Brevard County commissioners considered an ordinance extending a 150-day moratorium on new conventional septic tanks to a ban for at least eight years.
“Yahoo!” he shouted Sept. 25 at the first reading.
And his pleasure, while quieter, was no less apparent on Oct. 9, during the final reading.
“There are upwards of 60,000 septic tanks in the county and they produce about 18 percent of the nutrients going into the lagoon. And there are 800 new ones each year,” Kontnik, with the Brevard Indian River Lagoon Coalition, told commissioners. “We need to address this issue head-on.”
In a 5-0 vote, commissioners approved the ordinance, barring people building or expanding homes on Merritt Island or the county’s barrier island from installing new conventional septic tanks for at least eight years. The same goes for new mainland homeowners within 40 feet of the ailing lagoon.
The length of the ban is based on the life span of the county’s special half-cent sales tax to raise funds for projects cutting nutrients from the lagoon. The tax was approved in 2016 and plan call for it to sunset in 2026.
Conventional septic tanks are basically empty tanks that receive waste from the home, let it settle out and allow the liquid contents to flow into a drainfield. New ones are made of plastic, with baffled walls inside, and run about $7,000 each. But the county is more concerned about concrete versions, installed 50 years ago or more, that are cracking with age and leaching nitrogen and phosphorous into the groundwater and then the lagoon.
Studies show leaching conventional septic tanks have added more than 18 percent of the lagoon’s nitrogen load. The largest source, existing muck on the lagoon bottom, contributed 42.5 percent.
The nitrogen and phosphorous from the wastewater nourish algae in the lagoon. The algae blooms and blocks sunlight from seagrass, and suffocates fish and other underwater life.
Homeowners without access to a sewer hookup are now limited to choosing among various aerobic treatment units. Such a unit is designed to hold back about 65 percent of the nitrogen from its wastewater before releasing it.
But they cost more, about $11,000 each, say industry experts. And because of the electric pumps and other technology inside, they carry annual maintenance costs.
Natural Resources Director Virginia Barker offered a way of subsidizing the added costs for low-income homebuyers. They would get $4,000 each toward the price of the advanced septic tank. At an estimated 30 new tanks in the first year, that would cost the county $120,000. But if applied to all septic-tank customers, Barker estimated 480 new tanks in the first year, at $1.9 million in costs to the county.
Those rates were too rich for commissioners, who voted to refer the septic-grant proposal to the Citizen Oversight Committee, a seven-member panel that advises Barker’s staff on lagoon projects.
Satellite Beach City Manager Courtney Barker, who sits on the committee, said the group could figure out various ways to keep the county’s share of costs down, such as working with the federal Community Development Block Grant program.
While commission Vice Chairwoman Kristine Isnardi supported the ban on conventional septic tanks, she urged her colleagues to keep in mind the overall mission to expand the sewer system’s capacity and move people there from septic tanks whenever possible.
Isnardi, whose district includes the Indialantic area, said it would be healthier to not have raw sewage underground in the same yard where one draws drinking water.