Glens Falls 3rd District chief Claudia Braymer, chair of the special committee, said compliance is at the inspector’s discretion. Officials are not asking a person with a septic system built in the 1970s to update it.
“The whole point is to make sure they’re still working,” she said.
The committee said property owners who want to appeal against finding the system has failed and needs to be replaced could turn to the district committee, which oversees buildings and regulations.
Queensbury at-Large Supervisor Brad Magowan said he would rather see a system that is 75% to 80% effective than a system that is 10 or 20% effective.
“The hard part is doing this without rebuilding the wheel,” he said.
Stein said what constitutes a failing system should be spelled out more specifically rather than leaving it to the individual inspector. Otherwise, people would hire a certain inspector “because he lets it slip”.
The committee discussed the possibility of referring the matter back to the local community for review if the purification system is still working but not compliant.
Chester Supervisor Craig Leggett pointed out that local planning authorities are referring projects to the county for review.
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