Over the past two years, about 27% more septic tank owners in Mahoning County have applied to Mahoning County Public Health for permits to replace or alter their septic systems than in 2021, which was the year before the county health department implemented its new Operation and Maintenance program.

Colton Masters, director of environmental health for the county health department, said septic-system replacement or repair is one outcome of the O&M program, which has a goal to register all septic systems in the county and have them inspected to ensure they work properly.

“I can’t say whether those permits were pulled solely because of O&M or because people knew they were going to have to do this, and they were planning on it anyway,” Masters said last week.

About 350 county property owners applied for permits to repair or replace their septic system in 2021. That number jumped 27% to about 445 permits in 2022 and remained at that level in 2023. The county has about 14,000 septic system.

Masters said now that people know that the O&M program is in place, many are taking steps to get their septic system in order.

He said he believes septic owners acknowledge they have a problem, particularly when knowing their septic system will be inspected.

“They’re going to see the problems, so I might as well get a jump on this now,” Masters said.

He added, “That’s what we want to happen. We would prefer that people be proactive if they know there is a problem rather than reactive and wait for us to find it.”

Officials sent letters to 17,000 property owners in 2022, alerting them that the new program, required under Ohio law, was being implemented.

Home septic systems accept and treat household sewage in areas without sewers.

Masters has said the new program costs a property owner with a septic system $30 to $125 per year, plus other costs associated with pumping tanks or repairing or replacing systems. But the property owner also has benefits, such as making their septic system last longer if it can be saved. The program also is intended to improve the quality of surface water in areas with septic systems.

TWO YEARS AGO

2022 also was a big year for the most basic types of septic systems — referred to as level 1. That was the year property owners on record as having a Level 1 system were notified they had three years to have their septic system inspected and possibly pumped by a service provider. Level 1 systems generally have a basic septic tank or tanks and a leach field.

The following year focused on owners that had septic systems that were considered Level 2 or Level 3 that do not discharge wastewater into a leach field but instead discharge wastewater into other areas off a person’s property, such as streams. They are referred to as off-lot-discharging systems.

They are used on lots with no sewers that are too small for a leach field. They typically employ technology such as ultraviolet light, pumps, chlorinator and aerators to treat wastewater, Masters said. Level 3 systems require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Level 3 systems also require an annual sampling of the water leaving the system. Since 2023, that testing has been carried out by employees of the health department, called sanitarians. Masters said that change was made because service providers said they “did not want to do it anymore.”

A Level 2 system is similar to a Level 3 except that it does not require an Ohio EPA permit, Masters said. Some systems did not require an EPA permit because of the year they were built.

Level 2 and 3 systems are more sophisticated than Level 1 systems, but they can be cheaper to install than a traditional leach-field system because they do not require a leach field, Masters said.

There are about 9,000 Level 1 leach-field systems in the county, 4,200 Level 2 systems and about 859 Level 3 systems.

LEVEL 2 AND 3 SYSTEMS

The 5,059 Level 2 and Level 3 systems were the focus of the health department’s efforts in 2023 and are again this year, Masters said. Those systems require an annual permit renewal instead of a three-year renewal for Level 1 systems.

The number of Level 3 septic systems in the county increased by 11.4% during 2023 — from 771 at the start of the year to 859 at the end of the year. Masters said most of the new Level 3 systems in 2022 were because of a septic system having to be replaced.

Level 3 systems require annual water sampling, but that cost is built into the person’s annual permit fee, Masters said.

“There has been a significant uptick in those types of systems. That’s because most new septic systems depending on lot size and soil type may not fit there,” Masters said.

He said if a basic leach-bed system can’t fit on a person’s property, then the person has to get an EPA permit and install a Level 3 system, which does not use a leach field.

A leach field is a series of perforated PVC pipes in the ground that carry water from the septic tank into the ground as a means of disposal.

“Once they issue that (EPA) permit, then you have to have yearly sampling, and you have to be part of that level 3 program,” Masters said.

The soil in Mahoning County is not the best for septic systems, Masters said. “We have a lot of clay. If you have a lot that doesn’t have a lot of topsoil and is mostly just clay, you may have to have that EPA permit” and a Level 3 system, he said.

“That is part of what our sanitarians work with the contractors on when they go to build these houses and put these systems in to make sure they can fit what they want on the lot,” he said.

Sometimes when a septic system fails, the owner has to abandon the leach field because that part of the property is no longer suitable for a leach field. If the property owner does not have other land to establish a new leach field, it may require switching to a Level 3 system.

After using a piece of property for a leach field for many years, “you have used up that leach area,” and it cannot be re-used a second time, he said.

He added, “Then you have to look at a possible secondary area where this leach field can go if you have one. If you don’t, that’s when we say this lot is too small. We have to fill out some paperwork to go through the EPA” to switch to a Level 3 system with an EPA permit.

A Level 3 system is “typically much more complicated than a Level 1 system,” Masters said. “When you introduce an aerator and ultraviolet light, a chlorinator, that’s what these level 2 and 3 systems are. That’s why they require so much more maintenance,” Masters said.

Level 2 and Level 3 systems require less space and dirt moving than a traditional leach-field system, which saves money.

“It doesn’t take up as much space or as much time,” he said. Even with the cost of the mechanical parts, it tends to be cheaper. “But that’s also why you have to keep an eye on it. That mechanical stuff tends to break a lot. In the long run, they could end up being about the same price. But that depends on the system type and maintenance,” Masters said.

Among the costs for a level 2 or 3 system are a yearly maintenance contract to keep everything running. Starting in 2022, all Level 2 septic systems had to have a contract with a service provider to service the septic system. Work by the health department to bring those systems into compliance will continue this year, Masters said.

Masters said he believes additional service providers have come into Mahoning County to provide septic services because of the additional septic-service work required under the O&M program.

“We created this niche with the O&M program,” he said. “Some of those Level 2 systems had a service contract, but not all of them, so now all of them having it means more of those companies coming into the area servicing those systems.”

He said the compliance rate among Level 2 and Level 3 septic system users in 2023 was over 90%, which Masters called “very good.” The types of things owners of Level 2 and Level 3 systems have to do are returning documentation to the health department for their septic system and paying their fees.

Masters said he has a Level 2 septic system at his house. “It has a service contract, an aeration unit, a chlorinator, filters on two different tanks,” he said.

The areas of the county with the most septic systems are the townships of Springfield, Beaver and Canfield. Not far behind are Smith, Austintown, Green, Poland and Goshen townships.

Townships such as Milton, Jackson, Berlin, Ellsworth and Coitsville have the next highest number. The cites of Youngstown, Campell and Struthers and Boardman Township have very few.

erunyan@vindy.com