Indianapolis Speeds up Septic Tank Removal

"I told the kids wherever it's muddy, don't play there," says Angie's List member Danelle King of Indianapolis. But it wasn't mud her six children shouldn't have been playing in, it was a 10-by-10 patch of ground saturated with sewage leaking from her home's failing septic system.

Situations like King's are one of the reasons Indianapolis Department of Public Works launched the Septic Tank Elimination Program to address problems posed by the 27,000 septic tanks within city limits. Between 2006 and 2008, the city converted about 2,000 homes to city sewer.

In 2009, the city announced a stepped-up effort to convert an estimated 7,000 homes in high-priority areas in four years. Factors that affect an area's priority include higher tank failure rates, especially in the presence of wells, the construction progress of larger sewer components and the timing of other utility projects that coincide with STEP.

It's part of a comprehensive $750 million upgrade to the city's sewer infrastructure in the next four years. Under STEP, once the city builds sanitary sewer lines, homeowners must connect to them within six months at their expense. That means hiring a licensed contractor to pump out and abandon their septic tanks and then connect to the new sewer.

Failing septic tanks pose health issue

Because sewage is a health issue, the Marion County Health Department monitors and enforces the six-month connection deadline and can send noncompliant homeowners to Marion County's Environmental Court, where they face fines of up to $2,500 a day or court-ordered evictions.

One STEP goal is to prevent and reduce contamination to groundwater, ditches and streams from the raw sewage produced by failing systems like King's. Dangerously high levels of E. coli bacteria are often found in runoff around failing septic systems, says Lisa Kaufman, a supervisor with the Health Department.

"The Environmental Protection Agency's threshold for bodily contact is a sample containing 235 colony-forming units," Kaufman says. "Around failing systems, we see ranges of 500 to 1 million units."

Replacing septic tanks cost homeowners

DPW says the homeowner's average cost is around $2,000, plus a $2,500 new-user fee, but many factors can increase the price. "It depends on how many fences, bushes or trees you have to take down or move," says Horace Medcalf of sewer-connection specialist D & H Contractors Inc. Other factors include how far the home is from the sewer, the grade between the home and the connection, and the quality of the materials.

King and her husband, Sam, bought their Eastside home eight years ago, fully aware of the city's sewer plan. Because of it, they tried to maintain the septic system near the end of its 20-year life span rather than invest in major repairs.

Months before the city began sewer installation in 2007, the tank cracked, contaminating the soil. But when the city's solution was imminent, it came at a high cost. The $2,500 connection fee plus the $2,500 cost of hiring a contractor was a significant burden to the Kings. "I totally agreed we needed to get it done, but money talks and we didn't have it," Danelle says.

The city allows some new sewer users to pay the connection fee in installments over five years, but Danelle says her family earned more than the $45,553 qualifying threshold. She eventually convinced administrators that her six dependents merited an exception. The program now includes a $3,650 credit for each household dependent. The King residence connected to the city sewer in early 2008.

While aware of the burden on homeowners, DPW spokeswoman Kit Werbe says STEP is an improvement over Indiana's Barrett Law. Under that law, not used since 2005, the city could assess the cost of new construction to property owners.

"People would end up paying the city $10,000 to $15,000 each," Werbe says. "It was cumbersome, difficult to implement and a hardship." STEP and other sewer projects are now financed by annual 10.75 percent sanitary sewer rate increases through 2013, approved by the City Council in April. The current average sewer bill is about $18 a month.

In 2007, DPW notified Angie's List member David Oesterreich and his fellow Crow's Nest neighbors on the Near Westside of imminent STEP sewer installations. The work began in August and is expected to be finished in late 2010.

Retired and on a fixed income, Oesterreich says he doesn't plan on ever selling his 1950s home, so he doesn't see the return on a burdensome investment.

"I'll have to pay to destroy a perfectly satisfactory septic system, I have to pay to hook the house up and then pay for sewer charges," he says. "I understand the municipality has to do this, but I don't have to like it.