Editor’s note: This guest column was written with input from Brown County Regional Sewer District Board members Judy Swift Powdrill, Phil LeBlanc, Debbie Larsh, Mike Leggins and Clint Studabaker. Studabaker submitted it for publication.

Well over 20 years ago, many people in Brown County began steps to develop long-range plans to preserve the natural qualities of Brown County, including developing effective water and sewage systems.

In 1996, the Helmsburg Sewer District was formed. In 1998, the expansion of the Brown County Water Utility was underway, and by 2000, the Gnaw Bone Sewer District was operating.

Then, nearly 18 years ago, several residents and business owners in the Bean Blossom area, along with the Brown County Health Department, recognized that septic systems that no longer operated properly were going to require a better solution than just trying to rebuild them. Many systems had been built tens of years earlier on land poorly suited for septic lateral fields.

Today, many homes do not have adequate land space or soil types suitable for replacing their systems with new lateral fields. As families grew, many have increased the size of their home and their original septic systems may not meet current Indiana State Department of Health septic tank system standards for operating safety.

Out of this need for a better alternative, the Bean Blossom Sewer District was formed in 2006 by order of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. In 2015, the name was changed to the Brown County Regional Sewer District (BCRSD), a nonprofit volunteer organization.

The Brown County Regional Sewer District was formed to provide sanitary sewage collection and treatment service to areas of Brown County not already being serviced by other sewer districts. The BCRSD is a nonprofit organization as outlined by statute with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

The first project of the BCRSD has been under way for many years. Known as the Bean Blossom project, the general area of study includes the area around Bean Blossom, then east to Little Fox Lake and Woodland Lake, and south to Freeman Ridge.

The purpose of the proposed community-wide sewerage collection and treatment system is to provide homeowners with a good, economical solution in areas where septic systems are not working properly. It is not to needlessly connect individual homeowner septic systems that are working properly.

In areas where on-site septic systems are not working properly or are non-existent, community-wide sewage collection and treatment will help reduce untreated human waste from entering the soil, groundwater and surface water streams. Septic systems that are not working properly pose serious public health problems, including the potential spread of disease from high E. coli or other bacteria that can harm individuals, their families, and the water in the area.

A community-wide sewer system is often the best solution when local soil conditions, like the clay-rich, shallow to bedrock soils and steep slope conditions found in Brown County, are not well suited for properly operating septic lateral fields.

When homes and businesses are close together and numerous, and/or have older septic systems needing repair or replacement, they often do not have the room or conditions to complete those repairs under the current guidelines of the Indiana State Department of Health. This situation usually means that a central sewer system is more economically feasible.

In 2008 and 2009, two significant studies were made in Brown County. A Community Needs and Assessment study was completed by the Brown County Community Foundation (BCCF) and published in 2008. The BCCF study included a written survey that questioned what the county’s residents considered the most pressing concerns. The No. 1 concern was understandable: Jobs. However, the No. 2 concern was “effectiveness of septics and sewers.”

When asked to prioritize their issues, 61 percent of the citizens said their No. 1 priority was “to improve the sewer and water systems,” and with good reason.

The need for improvement is grounded on scientific basis. The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) has reported that several diseases are caused by bacteria and parasites found in sewage or sewage-contaminated water. These include campylobacteriosis, the most common diarrheal illness in America. Another disease is cryptosporidiosis, caused by a microscopic parasite, and is the most common waterborne disease in the United States. And a disease of particular concern to young children and the elderly is caused by a strain of Escherichia coli. E. coli bacteria is found in water contaminated with feces from warm-blooded animals, including humans.

The next year, 2009, the Brown County Vision 2020 plan was released. The Brown County Vision 2020 plan had similar findings. The plan concluded that clean air and water, including our streams and lakes, were health priorities for Brown County. The 2020 plan matched with the BCCF study stating that 52 percent of our citizens said that the county needed to “promote the county’s environmental aspects.”

Effective water and sewer systems are a major part of this calling and need to be developed and maintained.

The BCRSD was formed to help accomplish solutions for these concerns. The BCRSD is currently working to provide economical sanitary sewer service in the greater Bean Blossom area. In one form or another, the BCRSD has been hosting monthly meetings and public hearings for over a decade to discuss and plan the Bean Blossom project.

The BCRSD does not want to single out individual homes for septic/water testing. Instead, the BCRSD is a community-wide, not-for-profit organization with community-wide benefit.

When many homes in an area have septic system problems, then a community-wide program can provide very cost effective and cost shared solutions that benefit many people at once.

Community-wide sewage collection and treatment systems are expensive to plan, build and operate. To help communities pay for building these systems and to keep the cost of operating the systems as low as possible, both the federal government and the state government offer money in the form of outright grants and low-interest loans.

The BCRSD is diligently working to identify both grant funding and low-interest loans to keep the monthly cost to the homeowners as low as possible. However, before these funding agencies can offer monetary support, each community must hire a consulting engineering company that specializes in wastewater treatment to conduct a preliminary engineering study.

The BCRSD hired Ladd Engineering, from Lebanon, Indiana, to complete a preliminary engineering report (PER) and an environmental review (ER) for the Bean Blossom project area. These reports have been submitted to three different funding agencies to determine if the greater Bean Blossom project area will qualify for federal and/or state funding grants or low-interest loans. Initial feedback is very positive.

In addition to the meetings and public hearings that have been held over the years, the BCRSD will continue holding more public meetings. Please look for more details, additional articles and a schedule of time and locations for meetings to be published in the newspaper in the next few weeks. Those people living in the proposed Bean Blossom project area will also be receiving direct mailings of project information and details.

The BCRSD meetings will explain the project and coordinate how each residence will be connected, if needed, to the new community sewer system.

This system will eliminate the high cost of replacing old, non-performing septic systems. The new community sanitary sewer system will provide a healthier home environment and a safer natural environment in the very place we all live.

The BCRSD will soon have a website that will provide current information, answers to past questions, meeting schedules, contact information and more. Interested persons may also write to: Brown County Regional Sewer District, P.O. Box 1881, Nashville, IN 47448.