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Cyanobacteria Committee recommends town adopt septic inspection ordinance mirroring state law
Summary
At its June 10 meeting the Stoddard Cyanobacteria Committee agreed to pursue a town ordinance that mirrors recently updated state septic inspection rules to allow local enforcement; committee members debated enforcement limits for seasonal properties and whether buyers should pay for required upgrades.
The Stoddard Cyanobacteria Committee on June 10 discussed drafting a town ordinance that would mirror new state septic inspection requirements and allow the town to enforce inspections for property sales. Committee chair Steve Jacobs said the group should "start simple" by aligning town language with the state law and require septic inspection when a property is sold.
The recommendation arises from concerns about aging septic systems in town. Guest Jason Kovarik said more than 50% of septic systems in Stoddard are over 20 years old and lack state approval; he suggested that when upgrades are triggered by a property transaction the buyer — not the seller — should be responsible for completing the work. Naomi Risch asked whether the ordinance should include language requiring systems that fail inspection to be brought up to current passing standards.
Helen Tam-Semmens questioned whether simply mimicking the state law is sufficient, noting that if no town ordinance exists the state must enforce the law; adopting a mirror ordinance, she said, would give the town a local enforcement mechanism. Steve Jacobs said he would circulate the updated state law text for the committee to review and that the committee should consider a town-wide ordinance because much of the town drains into shared watersheds.
No formal ordinance was voted on at the meeting. The committee agreed to compile regulatory text and supporting materials in a shared Google Drive and to prepare recommendations for the Planning Board, which the Planning Board may forward to the Board of Selectmen. The committee plans to discuss Planning Board recommendations at its next meeting.
