Many rural wastewater treatment systems are failing, according to state report

Booming growth across the state has many small communities fighting to maintain their quality of life.

Many don't have the infrastructure to deal with hundreds of new homes.

A newly released state report raises major environmental concerns about small, privately owned wastewater treatment facilities that serve rural subdivisions.

Many do not comply with state regulations.

System failures have led to untreated wastewater flowing into streams and neighboring properties.

John Edwards is the Mayor of Cedar Hill, which is Robertson County's smallest city.

Bob Stinnett / WTVF

It's about 40 miles north of Nashville, but with a population of around 300 people, it can feel like a different world. Edwards recently got a call about cows loose and roaming on Main Street.

"This is what it's like to be a rural city, and so we love those problems," Edwards said.

He and some farmers herded the cows into a fenced playground at the Baptist Church, but other problems are much more difficult.

"Development is our main concern here right now," Edwards said.

He said a pending 700-home subdivision would more than double the rural city's population.

Cedar Hill does not have a municipal sewage system — instead the Dollar General and a handful of homes send their wastewater to a small, privately owned and unmanned facility that uses something called drip dispersal technology.

John Bagwell's farm is right beside the facility, which has a lagoon filled with partially treated sewage called grey water.

"I look at it every day. I see it out my window," Bagwell said.

In the 1990s the State of Tennessee began issuing permits for wastewater systems relying on drip dispersal technology, which transmit wastewater to the surrounding soil.

There are 360 active systems across Tennessee that primarily serve rural subdivisions and areas like Cedar Hill.

"Sometimes it will have an odor, not really bad, but they're injecting it in the ground who knows where that water is going," Bagwell said.

The soil is supposed to provide treatment of the wastewater, essentially filtering the water, so wastewater is not directly discharged to surrounding streams or groundwater.

Bob Stinnett / WTVF

But a new report from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation shows many of the systems are failing.

State inspectors visited all 360 active sites during a two-month period in January and February of this year.

Inspectors found "approximately one-fourth of the systems exhibited notable performance issues, including wastewater not being appropriately controlled and leaving the land application area."

They also found approximately one-fourth had less severe but "non-compliant issues such as localized saturation and ponding."

John Edwards was shocked to read the report, which found half of the drip dispersal systems did not comply with state regulations.

"To do all of this and have half of them fail is insane," Edwards said.

TDEC said the report speaks for itself and declined to do an interview.

"Without coming out and saying, 'hey there's issues we're going to do a press conference,' this is as close as you get I feel like with them," Edwards said.

Bob Stinnett / WTVF

The report has pictures of failing systems like one in Pegram where inspectors found "standing sewage."

Another site showed where a tree had fallen and ripped up several lines allowing wastewater to flow down the side of a mountain.

Many pictures showed ponds or standing wastewater, which should not have happened.

"When you have ponding like this, if you're a neighboring property, if there's a stream nearby, this is going into that area," Edwards said.

The report states inspectors "observed challenges associated with this method of wastewater management" and described their performance as "highly variable."

I asked, "Highly variable?"

Edwards responded, "That again shows there's not a consistency that you would expect or wish for when you're talking about wastewater."

"I just don't think it's the right system for rural areas. I mean if we are going to build that many houses we need the right system," John Bagwell said.

Inspectors did not find any problems with the drip field at the Cedar Hill facility near Bagwell's farm.

But the state report makes him even more worried about adding a bunch of homes to it.

"I hate to say it, but it's an I told you so moment for me, because I've been saying that all along. There have been difficulties with this one ever since it was built," Bagwell said.

Back in 2013 Cedar Hill's system failed when a sinkhole drained a million gallons of wastewater from the lagoon's pond.

Some flowed into the creek on Bagwell's farm.

"I don't want to be around it. My cattle's right beside it. I don't want it to be anywhere around me," Bagwell said.

The Department of Environment and Conservation sent the following statement:

The purpose of initiating this survey was to observe the performance of these systems and report the results in a manner that may inform design engineers, operating entities, local governing bodies, and future standard development of this type of system.

Our findings found that approximately one-half of the active systems surveyed appeared to be in compliance. Non-compliance issues, ranging from minor to notable, were observed in the other half of systems surveyed. The results support continued evaluation of this technology and how the technology factors into future wastewater management decisions in Tennessee.