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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 04-05-1993 - VIII-B 1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Action Agenda Item No. ` 11E-13 ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: April 5, 1993 SUBJECT: MONITORING AND MAINTENANCE ASSURANCE PROGRAM DEPARTMENT: Health Department PUBLIC HEARING YES: NO: X ATTACHMENT(S) : INFORMATION CONTACT: Dan Reimer, Health Director Under separate cover: Extension 2411 - Report of the Projected Costs and fees for M&MA TELEPHONE NUMBER- - Draft agreement with DEM - Memo to BOCC from John Link Hillsborough -732-8181 with Attachments ' Chapel Hill -968-4501 Mebane -227-2031 Durham -688-7331 PURPOSE: To continue deliberations of a Monitoring and Maintenance Assurance Program including management strategies. BACKGROUND: Information is provide by the attached June, 1992 agenda abstracts. RECOMMENDATION(S) : The Manager recommends that the Board approve a Monitoring and Maintenance Assurance Program, designate appropriate management entities and develop any necessary agreements with the NC Division of Environmental Management that would result from program enactment. ORANGE COUNTY • 2 BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Action Agenda Item No. ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: June 29, 1992 SUBJECT: wastewater Treatment systems Management: Monitoring and Maintenance Assurance Program DEPARTMENT: HEALTH PUBLIC HEARING: _ Yes X No ATTACHMENT(S) : INFORMATION CONTACT: HEALTH DIRECTOR'S OFFICE X2411 1) Report of Projected Costs and. Fees TELEPHONE NUMBER: for the Monitoring and Maintenance Hillsborough - 732-8181 Assurance Program Chapel Hill - 968-4501 2) Draft Agreement with Division of Mebane - 227-2031 Environmental Management for Review Durham - 688-7331 of Systems Approved by DEM PURPOSE: To provide the Board of Commissioners with information about the costs and fees of the Monitoring and Maintenance Assurance Program and the provisions of a proposed agreement between the health department and Division of Environmental Management (DEM) . This information will be used by the commissioners to decide whether to support the Board of Health's designation of the health department as management entity for Type IV systems in the regulations of the Division of Environmental Health. BACKGROUND: At the Board of Commissioner's meeting of May 4, 1992, the monitoring and maintenance assurance program and the recommendation of the Board of Health designation of the health department as management entity for Type IV systems was presented. Type IV systems include low pressure pipe (LLP) and pumped conventional, for example. The commissioners postponed action on the Board of Health's designation pending review of the proposed costs and fees and the proposed agreement with Division of Environmental Management (DEM) . The attached report intends to fulfill those directives. The report reviews the background, described the methodology for costs determination, outlines the four main components of the monitoring and maintenance assurance program, lists the principles to guide charging policies, forecasts the estimates for the numbers of inspections, hours, and revenue, and proposes the human resources requirements for the implementation of the program. The cost per inspection was developed in consultation with sally Rost, budget director. • The draft agreement from Division of Environmental Management was developed by . DEM for use in relation to those counties seeking authorization to take on responsibility for monitoring DEM approved systems. RECOMMENDATION(S): To confirm designation of the health department as management entity for Type IV systems, approve the fees subject to the approval by the Board of Health, and endorse the establishment of a full-time environmental health specialist position effective January 1, 1993. • ykiq3 3 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: June 24 , 1992 Action Agenda Item 4t SUBJECT: Management Entity Strategies for Non-municipal Waste Treatment Systems DEPARTMENT: County Manager PUBLIC HEARING: Yes X No ATTACHMENT (S) : Report INFORMATION CONTACT: County Engineer TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough - 732-8181 Durham - 688-7331 Mebane - 227-2031 Chapel Hill - 967-9251/968-4501 PURPOSE: To outline strategies for creating a management entity for control of alternative technology, non-single family, non- municipal waste treatment systems BACKGROUND: The Board of County Commissioners and other elected • officials and citizens of Orange County have expressed concern about the reliability of operation and the associated quality of waste treatment provided by alternative technology waste treatment systems. This • concern has focused, in large part, on non-municipal multi- family, institutional and commercial waste treatment systems within the County, particularly those which might be located in the Rural Buffer and University Lake watershed areas. Hazen and Sawyer, NC State University, and the NC Division of Environmental Health have each conducted studies intended to investigate the quality of waste treatment provided by alternative technology treatment systems. The results of these studies has validated the concerns expressed in the County regarding the reliability of alternative technology. The studies of alternative technology waste treatment systems have never faulted the technology itself but have pinpointed many cases of operation and maintenance failures which have been primary cause of treatment problems in alternative technology systems. A two phase approach has been suggested as a means of addressing the need to improve the reliability of alternative technology waste treatment systems and quality of treatment they provide. The first phase is the OC Health Department Environmental Health Section' s proposal to provide monitoring and maintenance assurance for all non-municipal waste treatment systems other than conventional septic tank systems. Environmental 4 Health has also proposed to serve as a management entity for DER Class IV systems (low-pressure pipe treatment ' systems with a capacity of up to 3000 gallons per day) . The second phase is the creation of 'a "management entity" which could assume some greater degree of control over the management and operational functions of all non-municipal non-single family alternative technology waste treatments systems within Orange County. The. systems which could fall within the purview of this management entity could include low pressure systems larger than single family size, spray irrigation systems and systems which discharge to surface waters. The degree of control provided by the management entity could range from that afforded by outright system ownership to that available with the intensive local regulatory control embodied in zoning regulations, special use permit conditions and local health regulations . The yearly operating costs involved in the effort to maintain control of the systems which currently exist can vary from - - $1. 000 , 000 for a strategy in which the County assumes system ownership and provides all utility operational functions to minimal administrative costs for a strategy in which the County exercises control through intensive local regulatory action. RECOMMENDATION: The Manager recommends that the Board review the report, that it approve the creation of a management entity which embodies the Strategy I (local regulatory control of alternative systems) approach and that it direct staff to begin the process for developing draft regulations which will allow the County management entity to assume a much stronger role in controlling alternative technology non-single family, non-municipal waste treatment systems. AME0629 • •