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County health official: Regulation 43 will require cesspools removed or upgraded at resale
Summary
El Paso County Public Health told Green Mountain Falls trustees that Regulation 43, now approved at the state level, will require cesspools discovered during property sales to be removed, abandoned or brought into conformity; county staff said they will work case-by-case and expect limited variances.
Kat McGarvey, El Paso County environmental health division director, told the Board of Trustees that the Water Quality Control Commission approved Regulation 43 and that local implementation will follow.
"When a property is sold or a cesspool is discovered on any property as part of the resale process, it will have to be removed, abandoned, or brought into conforming condition," McGarvey said. She explained that El Paso County has operated a property-sale program since 2015 and will have up to a year after the reg's effective date to amend local Chapter 8 rules.
McGarvey said many lots in the Green Mountain Falls area are small and rocky, making conventional onsite wastewater treatment challenging. She described options the county will consider, including placing a septic tank "in front of that cesspool" to provide additional treatment, and said variances will be limited and issued only when no feasible alternative exists.
Trustees asked whether the county would apply the property-sale requirement to intra-family transfers; McGarvey said the county currently exempts direct family transfers and expects to clarify that in forthcoming local amendments. She also flagged that the state OWTS coordinator is retiring and the effective date may shift until the position is refilled.
Why it matters: Many Green Mountain Falls properties are serviced by on-site systems and some use historic cesspools; requiring upgrades at resale could impose costs or engineering challenges on homeowners, but county staff said the aim is to protect groundwater and public health while evaluating alternatives on a case-by-case basis.
Next steps: McGarvey and staff said they would bring proposed Chapter 8 amendments to the Board once the state's effective date is finalized and recommended owners consult engineers early when resale triggers an onsite-system inspection.
