state legislature to define the respon- 

 sibilities of the local health depart- 

 ments. New housing patterns in the 

 coastal area, he says, are making the 

 rules obsolete. 



"There are places in the state where 

 the interpretation is that you can have 

 as many living units in an area as you 

 like, so long as each unit doesn't exceed 

 the 3,000 gallons," Benton says. "In 

 some places on the barrier islands, 

 there are fifteen to twenty living units 

 per acre. That's up to fourteen thou- 

 sand gallons per acre per day of un- 

 treated sewage." 



Benton and others point out that 

 because coastal sands are porous, 

 sewage can drop through the soils so 

 quickly that almost no treatment oc- 

 curs. As long as the effluent doesn't 

 rise to the surface, few people notice 

 the system is failing. Finding out just 

 how much sewage finds its way into 

 drinking water in beach communities 

 is extremely complicated. 



Benton says his division's density 

 guidelines are none too strict for the 

 water-laden soils of barrier islands, 

 where most of the drinking water 



comes from the freshwater "lens" form- 

 ed when rainwater is trapped under- 

 ground in a d.sh-like container of 

 heavier salt water. 



"Twelve hundred gallons per acre 

 per day of untreated sewage is equal to 

 about half the amount of rainfall, per 

 acre, that it takes to recharge the 

 drinking water on the barrier islands," 

 Benton says. "Do you want to drink 

 one-third sewage and two-thirds 

 water?" 



Benton does not regard septic tanks 

 on the islands as providing sewage 

 treatment — only disposal. He says 

 sewage in sensitive coastal areas 

 should be fully treated before it is 

 released from the system. And he 

 criticizes the methods of some 

 sanitarians, who approve the systems, 

 he says, by "going out to the site, and 

 stamping their feet in the dirt, and 

 saying 'okay, this is approved.' " 



But the Division of Health Services 

 and many local sanitarians blame En- 

 vironmental Management for The 

 Loophole. Joe Stokes, health director in 

 Dare County, says that his county's 

 sewage disposal laws are stricter and 



He adds that it's easy to predict 

 which system will fail: "You can tell 

 sometimes before you ever start dig- 

 ging. If the lot is low and wet, it'll never 

 work. You can't drain water in water. 

 If you dig down and the water is down 

 there, eight or ten inches, it'll never 

 work. And that blue-looking stuff that 

 they dredge up off the bottom, it's not 

 going to work in that, either." 



The problems are worst on the 

 islands, he says, because of the small 

 lots and high water tables there. "The 

 worst are those lots on the canals. I can 

 show you two trailer parks over on the 

 island (Bogue Banks) where not a 

 single system is working. When the 

 tide comes in, and they flush the toilet, 

 it just doesn't flush." 



The Rouses will install, for the 

 typical house, a 1000-gallon tank and 

 100 ft. of drain line for about $650, the 

 usual system for well-drained, sandy 

 soils. On clay, which absorbs effluent 

 much more slowly, the drain line is 

 lengthened to about 210 ft. and the 

 price rises to around $900. 



But in the developing beach com- 

 munities near them, many of the lots 

 are so small that the Rouses say they 



can't always find room for the pipe re- 

 quired. 



"You take a lot, five thousand 

 square feet, put a house and a 

 driveway on it, come back a hundred 

 feet for the setback and ten feet from 

 the lot boundaries, and there's just no 

 place for the drain field," Rouse, Jr. 

 says. 



The Rouses don't lay all the respon- 

 sibility for the failures of septic 

 systems on the county health depart- 

 ment. 



"The sanitarians are under a 

 tremendous pressure to approve these 

 things," Rouse, Jr. says. "If a guy has 

 had his lot for five or ten years, saving 

 up to build, are you just going to tell 

 him, 'Hey, you can't build here?' " 



Permits have already been issued 

 when the Rouses are called in, but they 

 usually speak up when they see a site 

 won't support the system. 



Says Alton Rouse: "I tell the con- 

 tractor, T don't know how you got 

 your permit, but this ain't gonna 

 work.' Then it's up to him, if he wants 

 to go ahead." 



— Neil Caudle 



more effective than those of Environ- 

 mental Management. 



"How can somebody sitting up in 

 Raleigh decide the best system for a 

 site down here?" he asks. He cites the 

 example of a sewage-disposal plan ap- 

 proved by Environmental Manage- 



Density, with septic tanks 



ment for a new condominium complex, 

 near Nags Head. The complex's plan 

 to pipe its 10,000-gallon-a-day sewage 

 flow into the treatment plant of a 

 neighboring community outraged 

 some of the community's residents. 



"When the lots were sold here, we 

 thought our sewage plant was large 

 enough to allow for some leeway," says 

 Lourana Cowan, resident of the com- 

 munity. "But since then, they've ad- 

 ded all these apartments and 

 restaurants, and now, these con- 

 dominiums. There have already been 

 some problems with some sewage 

 back-up here, so how can we handle 

 more?" 



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