County looks at guidelines for septic tanks

With the highly visible growth in rural areas of Cape Girardeau County, it is appropriate that the county's health department and commission should work together to develop some guidelines regarding septic tanks.

Without proper septic tank usage, there is danger of a mess seeping onto neighbors' property or into the creeks, where it becomes everyone's problem.

As it stands, homeowners get $90 state sewer permits through the health department when they want to put in a new septic tank. Installers are supposed to call the health department for an inspection before the tank is covered. If they don't call, nobody really knows how effective the system is or whether it was put in soil suitable for waste absorption. The health department winds up dealing with problems and trying to force homeowners to fix them.

A proposal the health department has before the commission would require septic-tank installers to be licensed. Reliable companies who do this work support the measure.

The commission plans to hold a public hearing on the matter, and commissioners have directed the health department to send letters to all of the septic-tank installers notifying them of the meeting.