I live on a lake and put in a new $8,000 septic system 2 years ago.  But now the city wants to run the sewer main out to our area and hook everyone up to it.  

Most of the people don't seem to care either way.  Some (like me that have a new septic) don't want it, but a few do because they need to up-grade anyhow.  The city has been very vague about the cost and just tell people it will be better.  My brother had the same thing happen to him in a different state and they wound up paying over $30,000.  I fear we are going to get the same deal. 

What can we do?  Or are we stuck with it.  Jean

PS.  I know one of the council members owns property on the lake and is pushing for this. 

This is a common problem facing communities today, particularly in lake communities.  Back in the days when people first started building in areas, not much thought was put into what they were going to do with the waste water.  In many cases they simply put in cesspools or ran the sewage straight out to a ditch or even the lake.   

When there were only a few homes in the area it wasn't that big of a deal, but over the years as more people built, the problem got worse.  Now there are thousands and thousands of these small communities around the country that have a sewage nightmare on their hands.  A common profile of one of these communities is, 10% of the homes/businesses have proper septic systems, 30% to 50% have systems that are questionable, and the rest are a situation that I don't even want to be within 5 miles.     

Now, as people become aware of the health/environmental/financial damages (no one wants to live in a poop infested neighborhood so the property values start dropping), a few in the community start pushing to get the problem cleaned-up usually the local unit of government people.  

But the solution is not easy.  Hey, everyone wants to clean up the environment...until they find out it is  actually going to cost them something.  Then they get real quiet and their wallets slam shut like a bear trap.  At that point they are looking for the cheapest way out.  

Often a nearby community will offer to help them out by running the big pipe out to them.  But this is not necessarily the act of kindness it may seem, it is a business proposition.  They will treat your waste water, but for a price/profit.  No one does something for free.  And to clinch the deal they make offers that seem very attractive, like spreading out the costs, alluding to state funded grants to help pay for it, and occasionally a few under the table pay-offs to key people to push the deal through.  

The local leaders see this as a quick and easy way to get the poop cleaned up (and maybe with a few bucks on the sly) are glad to pitch it to the people.     

Another situation is where a consultant is hired to assess the area, make suggestions and then help them through the process of acquiring a contracting firm to do the design, installation and help find the  funds via loans and grants to accomplish this process.  But once again all is not what it seems.  

In one small community, a consultant came in and suggested a very intricate, expensive, high-tech/high-maintenance system (that will cost 6 figures a year to maintain) and helped the community acquire a nice grant program.  The entire system cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 million dollars and a portion of this paid for with a nice grant.  

But after it was all done a few little items came out: The consultant was not the unbiased participant everyone thought...he was actually employed by the company that installed that very intricate, expensive, high-tech/high-maintenance system (that will cost 6 figures a year to maintain).  And the grant that ALL of us tax-payers contributed to...it paid about half so the people in the community paid 1½ million dollars for this system out of their own pockets, but the kicker is, they didn't need that intricate, expensive, high-tech/high-maintenance system (that will cost 6 figures a year to maintain) at a cost of 3 million.  

Because they had very good site/soil conditions, they could have gone with a low-tech/low-maintenance system that would have cost them about 1 million dollars, not 3 million, not even the 1½ million with the grant...and the maintenance would be a fraction of the costs.  But the community has their sewage problems taken care of and the consultant/design/installation firm had a nice payday and will make a lot of dough performing the maintenance over the next few decades. 

The point is, if people would have checked out all of the options before they made a decision, they could have saved a considerable amount of money.  

Here in Minnesota, there are several people that want to put together a program that will help small communities.  They want a pool of non-bias experts that would be available to go out to a community, do an assessment of the needs and conditions.  

Then bring people from the community to one of five sites around the state that have examples of the different styles of systems, show them the cost differences and show them which choices they have per their site conditions and requirements.  This way the people that live in a community will know they are getting the best deal. 

The fact is, there are many options to deal with sewage from homes and businesses.  In some areas, because of bad soil/site conditions and the types of sewage being generated, a sewage treatment plant is the best option.  But in many cases there are cheaper and more effective ways to deal with waste water...replacing existing systems and if necessary, up-grading them with  engineered systems like mounds, sand/peat filters, aerobic systems.  This can be done on an individual basis or as shared (cluster) systems...and in many cases they will be far cheaper than the big pipe.  

The catch is, if you want to fight the city, you need to get everybody on board and that is tough.  There are always a few arrogant Mellon heads that will go against the grain just to be different. If everyone wants septic, they will say they want city sewer and refuse to up-grade their own septic systems.  If you want help organizing your community let me know.  

I'm not saying sewage treatment facilities are bad, to the contrary, sometimes a centralized facility is the ONLY option...What I am saying is there are many choices available for homeowners and communities and those that have to live with those decisions should be made aware of all the choices BEFORE a choice is made. There are standard systems, mounds, sand filters, aerobic systems and many areas can use a combination of individual and cluster systems (several homes on one system) which often can be better and cheaper than a sewage treatment facility. But the sad fact is, often the final decision is made by one or two people (because no one bothers to get involved) and their choices are prompted by some smooth talking salesman selling their technology.

In the classes I put on, when applicable, I focus on these choices and the proper way to deal with this situation (by showing the people how to come up with a good game plan).