Technical Advisory Council

for

Onsite Wastewater Treatment

May 22, 2003

 

Meeting held May 22, 2003 at Michigan State University, Turfgrass Research Center.

 

Members and alternates present:  Chuck Cousino, Ted Loudon, Larry Stephens, Ric Falardeau, Ron Lindsey, Bryant Wilke, Dan Stock, a new MWEA representative, and Dan Wagner of Milan Vault, a new MSTA representative.

 

Guests present:   None

 

Meeting called to order by Chuck Cousino, Chairman.

 

Minutes of the March 27th meeting were distributed to Council members.  Motion by Ted, support by Ric, that the minutes of the March 27, 2003 meeting be approved as amended.

 

 

UPDATES and ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Chuck introduced Dan Stock, retired, as a new representative of MWEA on the TAC.  Dan has a background with the U.S. Public Health Service, and with a subsidiary of CH2M in onsite wastewater.  He will serve along with Wayne Kukuk as MWEA representatives.

 

Chuck also introduced Dan Wagner of Milan Vault as the new appointed representative of the MSTA.

 

Chuck indicated that Bob Godbold has been appointed by MALEHA to replace Bob Long on the TAC.  Bob probably did not get notice of this meeting.

 

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

Commercial Flow Study --- Ted has left this in Del’s hands, and he does not know the status of Del’s efforts.  Del could not be here today.  Members are again encouraged to feed Del & Ted any information they have with regard to flows from commercial and institution facilities.

 

 NOWRA Performance-Based Code --- Ted and Larry shared information on the status of the national model code effort by NOWRA.  The next code committee meeting will be in Reno, NV following the annual NEHA Conference in June.  It is expected that draft code documents will soon be formed.  Larry will be able to give a more informed report at the June meeting after the Model Code Committee meeting in Reno, NV.

 

Site Compaction --- Ted will get with Del and resurrect the development of a policy statement on wastewater system site compaction concerns.  Del has a source for signs that can be used to mark wastewater system sites warning of compaction concerns.

 

Mound Guidance Document --- Ric filled members in on the history of this proposed document by DEQ, and updated the TAC on its status.  Discussion ensued on some of the details of the draft guidelines.  This document will be finalized within a couple of weeks. 

 

Operating Permits --- Chuck filled in the TAC on the progress on this subject.  At this point it seems that we need to raise some funding to finance some professional help in writing a model document for use by those counties

 

Motion by Dan Stock, support by Dan Wagner, that Ted draft a letter to TAC member organizations suggesting their remaining proceeds from the Annual Wastewater Conference be contributed to the TAC to fund the development of the first draft of a model operating permit document for use and implementation by local health departments.  Motion carried.  Ted will try to get this letter out right away so it can be considered at the various association meetings coming up.

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

Septic Systems & Land Use --- Larry has been monitoring the EPA Listserve on onsite wastewater treatment issues.  He recently noted a posting by a planning consultant from Illinois regarding his experiences in a portion of Wisconsin on land use issues related to onsite wastewater treatment.  Larry suggested he might be a good speaker on this issue at the annual wastewater conference.  In fact, the suggestion was made that this might be a good theme for the next annual conference.

 

Cluster Systems --- Should the TAC do a survey of local health departments to inventory the existing cluster systems in the state?  Larry agreed to work on a survey form that may be used for this purpose.  Ric will get Larry a copy of Holly Mercer’s study she did a few years back.

 

 NEXT MEETING

 

Next Meeting – June 25, 2003

 

Location --- MSU, Turfgrass Research Center

 

FUTURE MEETING DATES

 

Future Meeting Dates:  Chuck will email the group with possible additional meeting dates coming up this year.  Dates will then be set.

           

Meeting was adjourned at 3:15 PM.

 

 

                                                                                    _________________________________

                                                                                    Larry D. Stephens, P.E., Sec.

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