Groundwater in the Great Lakes Basin

Figure 1.
Source: General
Descriptions of Common
Types of Onsite Sewage
Systems, 1999.
Figure 2.
Source: General
Descriptions of Common
Types of Onsite Sewage
Systems, 1999.
Approximately $12 million per year is raised of which
60% is utilized for septic system upgrades (Maryland
Department of the Environment, 2008).
Septic systems are especially prevalent in small rural
communities with low to moderate income. Often residents
believe they are connected to a municipal treatment
plant and therefore do not maintain their septic
systems, resulting in system failures and groundwater
contamination (Clean Water Fund, 2007). An estimated
one million gallons of untreated waste leaks from
improperly maintained, inadequate and old septic tanks
every day in Kent County, Michigan, alone (Clean
Water Fund, 2007). There are an estimated 677 and
679 unsewered communities in Indiana and Minnesota,
respectively (Wallace et al., 2006). Of the unsewered
communities in Indiana 88% have fewer than 200
homes and 90% of households are considered to be
low to moderate income (Wallace et al., 2006). In the
article “The High Price of Ignorance” it was stated that
“[i]n some rural communities, a user’s share of capital
costs for a centralized sewer system can exceed a
homeowners property value, causing financial collapse”
(McKenzie, 2005). Additionally, most of the residential
septic systems located in Indiana’s Great Lakes
counties are situated in terrain that is not suitable for
proper septic system foundations (Table 2).
TYPES OF SEPTIC SYSTEMS
On-site disposal systems are used in areas where
distance between houses makes installing a sewer
system too expensive, or in some suburban areas where
municipal governments have not yet provided sewers
(CDC, 2006). Conventional and mound septic systems
are the two primary types used in the Great Lakes Basin.
The conventional system (Figure 1) contains a septic
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