by Andrew Getty
When something is done for a long time a certain way it becomes normal. Having never been challenged, it becomes the standard, the rule. Right, wrong or indifferent, it is the way it is.
Two very different examples of this are the written legal notice given to specific people regarding a public hearing before the Planning Board or Zoning Board of Appeals, and the use of a drywell as a part of the septic system.
Obviously these are two very different topics, for very different reasons and regulated by two very different laws; local and state.
One being a Town of Webb local issue and the other is regulated by NYS Department of Health.
Each also carries different legal status, one being lawful and the other not so lawful.
Every time the Planning Board or the Zoning Board of Appeals has an application that requires a public hearing, due notice to the public is required.
Yes, the process is also regulated by state law; however, the Town of Webb’s requirement is a little more than the minimum required by state law.
In general state law requires a five day notice in a paper of general circulation for a public hearing.
The Town of Webb has required a ten day notice, as written in the zoning ordinance. Probably because of the local paper being weekly.
As far as a direct mailing to neighboring properties for a public hearing, the state generally does not mandate that. It is usually left up to the local municipality.
Some municipalities send the notice to people within 100, 200, 500 feet, of the subject property.
Some municipalities put a big sign on the applicant’s property, some may do nothing… leaving the only notice in the newspaper.
The Town of Webb does not have a law requiring a mailing, some towns do, Webb does not.
However, it has been the policy of the Town of Webb to mail a copy of the legal notice that was sent to the local paper to all adjoining and contiguous property owners. The properties must touch each other.
This policy has been used for many, many years. Accordingly, without any local law mandating something different, and having been doing this for years (decades) this becomes like an unwritten law, a standard policy.
For many years, drywells have been widely accepted as the typical type of septic system, specifically the absorption back into the ground.
The septic tank is a sealed component of the overall system. The tank separates solids from liquids, holding back the particles for bacterial breakdown until they turn to a liquid.
Once in a liquid state, the particle-free liquid passes the baffles and flows on to the absorption area.
A drywell is a huge perforated tank. Usually very deep in to the ground (8, 10, 12 feet is common) and buried in stone all around the outside.
This is a completely different design concept from a leach field.
A leach field is a series of stone filled trenches, or fingers, of a certain width having individual perforated four inch pipe in each and are fairly close to the surface… usually not much more than a foot or two below the surface.
Today there are a number of designs for “trench” using pipe, chambers, bio-mats or bio-pipes, but all are installed close to the surface, unlike a drywell which is very deep.
Even though a drywell has been so widely used up until 2002, this would not be considered a “policy.”
Why? Unlike the public hearing notice that had no law requiring direct notice to neighboring properties, the use of a drywell was essentially prohibited by NYS law since 1972… however, not too many paid much attention to it.
This is not a legal “policy.”
Appendix 75A, NYS Dept. of Health (regulation for on-site septic systems) clearly states as follows: A seepage pit, sometimes called a leaching pit, leaching pool, or incorrectly a drywell or cesspool, is a covered pit with an open-jointed or perforated lining through which septic tank effluent seeps into the surrounding soil…
Continued: Required Site Conditions: If soil and site conditions are adequate for absorptions trenches, seepage pits shall not be used…
Please note the keys words… shall not be used.
Since 1972… almost 44 years, drywells should not have been installed unless proven a trench system was impossible, which is almost impossible to prove!!
If installed after 1972, drywells are in violation. A drywell in violation shall not be replaced.
Old habits are hard to break.