Alger County board adopts clarified Upper Peninsula environmental health code

County commissioners on June 15 voted to adopt revisions to the Upper Peninsula environmental health code that county health staff said would clarify language without changing how permits are issued.

Linda, representing the LMS district health department, told the board the changes were made in response to a state accreditation audit and were intended "not to change the way that we operate" but to clear ambiguous language. She said the revisions specify the county jurisdictions covered, clarify definitions of conventional and alternative sewage systems, remove an explicit NSF 40-only requirement for alternative-treatment systems and correct a conflicting deep-cut excavation provision.

The presentation explained that removing the NSF 40 reference restores the health department’s ability to permit alternative treatment systems (examples cited included Presby and Elgin systems) that the department has allowed for about 30 years. Linda said the code now more clearly references an "alternative technical manual" and explicitly directs land-division appeals to EGLE.

Commissioners asked for and received clarifications about temporary pump-and-haul measures; Linda confirmed the code continues to prohibit pump-and-haul except for short-term emergency use when a contract and monitoring are in place. The board then moved to approve the agreement to adopt the revisions and approved it by voice vote.

The board had no public comment on the item. The health department also noted a corrected sizing table in the technical manual portion so the numeric table now matches current local practice.