We have a community issue of highest priority, but hardly anyone understands enough about it, and almost nobody has been willing or daring to talk about it.
It has to do with DEP, Title 5 septic systems, our algae-infested ponds, and the need to test alternative/innovative methods to solve our problem.
In 1995, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) instituted the Title 5 septic regulations.
Unfortunately, those DEP regulations caused vast algae infestations that have destroyed our ponds. Why? Because Title 5 causes five to 10 times more nitrogen pollution than the previous cesspools and leaching pits ever caused.
How is that possible? Answer: Because the surface areas at the bottom and sides of the old systems were much smaller than in Title 5, and therefore the grease and food particles quickly formed an anaerobic biomat, a waterproof liner, first covering the bottom and then growing up the sidewalls.
When it reaches the upper earth zone, the biomat cannot grow any higher, because it is consumed by roots, oxygen, earthworms, etc. And as the leachate passes through this totally self-organized natural filter, most of the nitrogen is absorbed (“the grass is always greener around a cesspool!”). Thus, those old septic systems prevent roughly 75 percent of the nitrogen from leaching straight down to the groundwater.
By contrast, Title 5 systems have leaching areas five to 10 times larger, which will take many years, if ever, to form an effective waterproof biomat. This means that most of the nitrogen will continue to drain straight down — along with viruses, antibiotics, toxins, hormones, etc. — into the groundwater, our only source of drinking water. It moves one to two feet per day toward the ponds — even from Title 5 systems located at the top of the watershed areas, thousands of feet away.
Consequently, our ponds have gone from bad to much, much worse, with massive algae infestations, now including highly toxic cyanobacteria, causing our ponds to go slimy and rot and stink, causing massive contamination and die-offs of shellfish and eelgrass, vast dead zones, and severe illness in people, and death to dogs. Read how the toxins affect the liver and nervous system.
If dogs can die from swimming among these cyanobacteria, so can our children.
Going swimming has become life-threatening, requiring constant scanning the surface for signs of those deadly cyanobacteria, which come in a rainbow of colors, or none at all.
For more than 25 years, DEP has been aware that Title 5 is in clear violation of the Federal Clean Water Act law, enacted in 1972, “to ensure that drinking water is safe, and to restore and maintain oceans, watersheds, and their aquatic ecosystems to protect human health, support economic and recreational activities, and provide healthy habitat for fish, plants, and wildlife.”
Fortunately, in 1997, DEP started the alternative/innovative (A/I) technologies testing program, with the stated purpose of encouraging the development of systems capable of reducing the Title 5 nitrogen pollution.
But unfortunately, it became clear from the very beginning that the DEP testing program was actually deeply discouraging, requiring years of unreasonable, overkill testing, costing many thousands, most of it totally unnecessary from public health or any other point of view.
But soon, DEP’s obstacles grew much worse, demanding that all A/I technologies must be tested off-Island at a remote military site on Cape Cod, requiring several years and more than $100,000, before getting a permit to install on local Title 5 systems. Impossible to do without big-money support.
After spending more than two decades and many millions, this DEP testing program has been so unsuccessful that less than 1 percent of our Title 5 systems have any kind of nitrogen-reducing technology.
Instead, all these years, we could have had our own inspection/testing program, just as safe, under our own boards of health: An Island-wide team of health inspectors/testers would inspect all local A/I systems, at random, check for overflow, odors, insects, animal digging, or any other sign of nuisance or risk to public health. They would take samples from before and after the filter, and would test for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite, getting the nitrogen values right there onsite. Well equipped with e-tech, in and out in less than 15 minutes. This strict inspection strategy would make it entirely safe to issue permits to any A/I technology that hopes to effectively reduce nitrogen. If they work, they stay. If they fail, they go.
If we had started this when first proposed, two decades ago, our ponds would now be clean and safe.
But in spite of their full knowledge of the ongoing catastrophe, DEP continued to act with blatant disregard for our health, economy, and way of life (swimming, boating, fishing, shellfish, fresh clean water), by forcing us to put in Title 5 (under threat of $500/day fine for noncompliance).
And DEP has kept forbidding any A/I technology not approved by DEP, i.e. forbidding every A/I technology that has not gone through that onerous and completely unnecessary off-Island testing program. And our community has just let it happen.
Now, after being sued by the Conservation Law Foundation, DEP has finally openly admitted what they have known for a very long time: that 75 to 80 percent of the local nitrogen pollution comes from the Title 5 systems located in our various watershed areas.
So now they have decided to require that all Title 5 systems located within the watersheds of all our ponds must reduce nitrogen pollution by at least 75 percent, by “upgrading to the best available nitrogen-reducing technologies within five years.”
Great! Right? No, not so fast: The cost of doing what DEP would approve will be immense: DEP-approved A/I technology currently ranges from $37,000 to $49,000 per home; central sewering would cost $60,000 to $90,000 per home.
Thus, to convert our 10,000 Title 5 systems with a mix of these DEP-approved technologies would cost us more than $500 million, not including the cost of financing, maintenance, and testing. And many thousands of beloved trees and gardens would be destroyed to make room for big machines digging big holes for those big, DEP-approved A/I systems.
Fortunately, we do have other options, and they would cost 60 to 80 percent less than those DEP-approved technologies ($15,000, versus $37,000 to $49,000). The annual fees would also be far less: $900 a year for mandatory inspections/testing, plus $900 a year for ongoing professional maintenance of the system, for a total of $1,800 a year, compared with $6,000 to $8,000.
Such systems have been in development since before Title 5, and have proven to reduce nitrogen by 88 percent on average, and they do not require removal of beloved trees and gardens. On the contrary, these systems provide beneficial fertilizer and irrigation (fertigation). In addition, they don’t require attention by the homeowners.
So clearly, such systems will be added to the list of available options. Right?
Wrong! Believe it or not, even after 28 years of forcing us to ruin our beloved ponds, DEP still intends to continue to deny permits to any A/I technologies not approved by DEP. We simply cannot allow this to happen. There is too much at stake.
For the obvious reasons stated above, from now on, we must not allow DEP to continue to prevent us from protecting our water. From now on we must employ the most effective methods, at the least cost, and least loss of trees, to reduce the most nitrogen, as soon as possible, even if they have not been approved by the DEP.
We must be able to choose and test any A/I methods in our own community. All to protect our water.
An all-Island community meeting is being planned to get the ball rolling. Location, date, and time will soon be announced.
Anna Edey is the author of “Welcome to the Green Light at the End of the Tunnel” and “Solviva.” She has been designing alternative/innovative technologies since 1976, and she lives in Vineyard Haven.
