Changes are being proposed to an ordinance that affects more than 80 percent of Brown County residents and property owners.
A rewritten Brown County septic ordinance will go before the county commissioners for a first reading on Wednesday evening, Feb. 19, starting at 6 p.m. in the County Office Building in Nashville. These are the rules that a committee of volunteers has been working on for more than a year.
The county’s septic system ordinance contains the rules that everyone in the county must follow if they have a septic system — which is most of Brown County. Only Nashville, Gnaw Bone and Helmsburg have public sewer systems.
The ordinance in place now has been in effect since 1997. Groups have been attempting to pass rewrites since the early-2010s, but none of them have been approved.
Copies of the 1997 ordinance and the current draft are posted on the Brown County Health Department’s website: browncountyhealthdept.org/page-7/page-11.
The Brown County Board of Health approved the draft version in its January meeting. Next, it must go before the county commissioners for a first reading and two public hearings. The commissioners had it on their agenda for their Feb. 5 morning meeting — a surprise to health department staff members who were in the audience. But the commissioners heard few comments about it, as Diana Biddle said the board had committed to not discussing “major ordinances” during meetings when most people are at work.
The rules in the new draft version of this ordinance are based on state code for septics, but a few details are more specific than the state’s. County-level rules can be stricter than the state’s, but they can’t be less strict.
Some changes are based around the idea of consumer protection, allowing buyers ways to know what size their septic system is before they purchase a property. The new draft allows a homeowner to determine how many rooms are “bedrooms” for the purpose of septic system size — which is something state code allows. Then, a public document would be filed with that information.
This draft does not include a requirement for a septic system to be inspected and possibly upgraded at the time of sale. That was in the 2018 draft, but it didn’t make it into this current draft because of public opposition back then.
Written comments on the ordinance also are being accepted; they can be delivered to the Brown County Auditor, P.O. Box 37, Nashville; or emailed to [email protected].
