Health department representatives address complaints from Huron Beach group

Representatives of District Health Department No. 4 attended the April 9 meeting of the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners to bring the board up to date on a couple of issues brought before them by the Huron Beach Civic Association (HBCA), which is accusing the health department of not enforcing the rules, regulations and requirements of the sanitary code. The HBCA alleges that the sewage system on lot 578 of the Surf Park subdivision along Vega Lane does not meet the sanitary code isolation requirements from Lake Huron.

The HBCA also believes a sewage system needs to be replaced on Quapaw Lane. In addition, the group also feels there is a lack of pertinent well-drilling data being recorded in the county. Chairman of the Health and Safety committee, Don Field, notified the health department that they wanted to be brought up to date on these issues.

MEMBERS OF the HBCA say they?ve been before the four-county health board, but were told the matter needed to come back before the PI board of commissioners. HBCA is looking at the possibility of filing an appeal of the health department?s decisions, but Field wants to have more discussions with the group to see if the issues can be resolved.

HBCA outlined the issues in a letter to the board February 18, which was followed by a response from PI county health inspector Frank Krist. Krist, along with Scott Smith from the health department, were in attendance at the April 9 meeting to answer questions the board had regarding its March 7 letter.

?We?ve reviewed these same issues at the health board on several occasions,? said Smith.?We?ve answered every question that Huron Beach has presented to us. We?ve answered those in writing. We?ve offered some suggestions as to some avenues that they can pursue. We don?t know what it is that they are looking for.?

?I?VE BEEN here in the county courthouse longer than any employee, and this is the first time we?ve got complaints like that,? said Krist. HBCA questions whether the septic tank and/or field on Vega Lane meets the required setback distance from the ordinary high water mark for Lake Huron, established in October 1986. ?Using that same ordinary high water mark, the additional question exists as to whether the tank and/or field meet the required elevation above said ordinary high water mark,? states Bud Delong in his February 18 letter. Delong is a member of the governmental & legal affairs committee of the HBCA. ?I find it interesting that although the health department claims the site is in compliance, they have not submitted one shred of evidence to refute the accuracy of our findings,? the letter states. HBCA also was looking for rationale for using a 50 foot setback requirement, instead of the 100 foot.

KRIST SAID the isolation distance of 50 feet was in place when the property was subdivided and approved in 1956. The sanitary code was amended on July 26, 1973, and the isolation distance between the surface waters and absorption bed was increased from 50 feet to 100 feet. ?In 1973, when the commissioners passed the code from 50 to 100 feet, they were adamant that they were only going to do that, if we honored the 50 foot,? said Krist.

Krist said this stipulation was expressed again by the Appeals Board in 1975, when he was directed not to reject sewage permits on two separate existing parcels, which were developed prior to 1973, because the isolation distance of 100 feet could not be maintained.

ACCORDING TO information gathered by the HBCA, a citation was issued for the parcel on Quapaw Lane because raw sewage came to the surface, but later was withdrawn after a phone call with the health department.

?How could a phone call claiming a repair of a non-complying system justify the withdrawal of the mandate to bring the system into compliance?? asked Delong in his letter to the board. Tom Harkleroad also voiced his displeasure about the time it took for the health department to come out to the Quapaw site. He said it took 18 months, which is disputed by Krist.

?We went out there the next day,? he told the commissioners. ?I was out there personally after that was fixed at least four times throughout the summer and fall. I never noticed any problems.

?They indicated in their letter he had a dry well. How would you know, unless you dug up his yard? Did you have permission to be on his property?? Krist addressed Harkleroad.

ON THE OTHER issue of well drillers not providing drilling information to the health department, Krist states in his letter that in 2002, Presque Isle County issued 153 well permits and received 138 logs from the well drillers. The drillers have up to 60 days to submit

the logs and if a log has not been received when the permit is near the expiration date of two years, a site investigation is conducted.

The county also has an electronic well log database with electronic GIS maps that show the location of each drill. The HBCA believes the well drillers who do not provide information should not be issued a permit if they have outstanding permits.

THERE WAS some discussion about a county-wide ordinance on sewer systems, but Field believes there isn?t enough information to proceed. Krist doesn?t believe the county-wide ordinance would be in the best interest of the homeowners.

?If we go into a real detailed code specific for Presque Isle County, that?s going to be a lot of expense for homeowners,? said Krist. ?It?s going to be a lot of red tape and who are you going to get to enforce it?? ?We?re not asking for a review of all of the antiquated sewage systems in Presque Isle County,? said Harkleroad. ?We never did such a thing. ?What we are saying is — it took 18 months to get somebody out there to tell us there is a problem,? said Harkleroad. ?Three days after they said there was a problem, apparently by telephone, they decided there was no problem. But the fact of the matter is that the problem still exists.?

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