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Town of Easton, MA
Bristol County
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[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Health of the Town of Easton 5-1-1979; amended in its entirety 5-2-2017. Subsequent amendments noted where applicable.]
The Board of Health in the Town of Easton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, in accordance with and under the authority of Section 31 of Chapter 111 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth, hereby adopts the following regulations at a meeting of the Board of Health, on Monday, May 1, 2017.
Purpose of these regulations:
A. 
To protect the public by enhancing environmental investigation, documentation, design, construction and final approval for an on-site system for disposal of sewage.
B. 
To protect all parties involved in a real estate transfer when a subsurface sewage disposal system inspection is performed for a dwelling or dwelling unit that has been unoccupied for a length of time, and/or has had a decrease in water consumption, and/or individual component(s) that has been replaced or altered due to a Title 5 inspection report.
C. 
To protect groundwater from uses and waste streams that may be deemed hazardous.
For disposal works installer's Permits, such permits shall expire at the end of the calendar year in which they are issued unless earlier revoked for cause by the Board of Health.
Disposal system construction permit applications which are not complete will not be accepted. In addition to the application form and fee, the required copies of the septic design plans bearing the original stamps and signatures of the design professional and Professional Land Surveyor are required.
In the absence of mottling, groundwater must be determined during the period from December 1 through April 30.
A minimum of two percolation tests will be required per septic system. Percolation tests performed prior to January 1, 1996 will not be recognized for design purposes.
All sieve/hydrometer analysis samples shall be taken in the presence of the Board of Health agent.
A. 
The Board of Health agent shall maintain custody of the sample.
B. 
Prior to the Board of Health submitting samples to a certified lab, the fee to cover all department costs shall be submitted to the Board of Health. The fee shall accompany the samples to the testing facility.
A. 
The plans submitted as part of a DWCP application must contain the following information: The plan must list correct pertinent elevations; a revision block shall be included of each revision with a brief description of the changes made. Spot elevations and one-foot contours shall be used to indicate the ground elevations over the leaching area, and if necessary, the slope at the breakout elevation. All grading shall direct the surface water away from the foundation and garage floor elevation. The drainage shall be designed to drain the property satisfactorily and to prevent adverse storm water drainage conditions on adjoining property. The proposed final grading shall be shown in the septic system profile. Sufficient additional elevations must be shown, including final grades at each of the four corners of the building to indicate clearly how the surface drainage on the property is to be handled.
B. 
No changes shall be made to approved plans without obtaining prior Board of Health approval.
C. 
An approved plan must be on site during the construction of the septic system.
Upon completion of the excavation for the leaching facility, the Board of Health must be notified and the soil at the bottom of the leaching facility inspected by a representative of the Board and approved before construction is continued. Inspection requests must be received by the office at least 24 hours in advance.
A. 
The Certificate of Compliance will not be granted until the designing professional has provided the office with the required paper copies of the As-Built Plan.
B. 
An As-Built plan meeting the specifications in § 350-10C shall be required prior to the issuance of the Certificate of Compliance, in all cases, except for the repair, replacement in same location of a tank, pipe or distribution box. In these instances, the Approving Authority or its designee may allow a drawing showing the distances from a known structure to the system component.
C. 
Specifications. The As-Built plan shall bear the following information: the stamp of the design professional with signature, date, location of the existing structure with the layout of the sewage disposal system, existing elevations, schedules for the sewage disposal system(s) including invert elevations at the building foundation, entrance and exit to the septic tank, entrance and exit to the distribution box, the beginning and end of the leaching facility, elevation of top of foundation, location of private wells within 100 feet of the leaching facility, water service, impervious barrier, and finished grading shown in one-foot contours over all the septic system components and where breakout elevations are required. The As-Built is a recognized alternative method to locate the system's components once buried.
For all variance and Local upgrade approval request(s) that are required to go before the Board of Health, the applicant's design professional must attend a Board of Health meeting for review of the requests. The design professional may submit a request in writing, prior to meeting, asking that a designee from the same company, holding the title of PLS, SIT, EIT, PE or RS be allowed to attend the meeting and present the variance request or Local upgrade approval request(s). All variance and Local upgrade approval request(s) must be received by the Board of Health office at least 10 calendar days prior to the meeting date.
A. 
Title 5 System inspector. All Title 5 State inspectors must also be permitted by the Easton Board of Health. Each State licensed Title 5 inspector shall fill out the proper permit application and submit a copy of their current Title V inspection license from the State along with the applicable fee. Such permits shall expire at the end of the calendar year in which they are issued unless earlier revoked for cause by the Board of Health.
B. 
Inspection Reports must be submitted to Town of Easton Board of Health using the most updated State form and must be accompanied by the appropriate fee. All Title 5 reports submitted must be accompanied by the preceding 24 months of water usage records (from the inspection date). Any reports submitted by an unlicensed or unpermitted inspector and/or without the required water usage records or payment of fee will be returned.
C. 
During the inspection, if any of the following conditions are noted, they must be corrected:
(1) 
If plastic covers are used at grade, they must be sand or concrete filled and screwed down with at least four 2 1/2 inch plus screws.
(2) 
All potable wells within 100 feet of a leaching area must be tested as part of the inspection for bacteria and nitrogen. A copy of well results must accompany the completed inspection report.
All properties inspected within the Town of Easton which reveal a reduction in water consumption, and/or have been vacant for a period of time exceeding one month, resulting in a reduction of water consumption and/or an individual component(s) that has been replaced or altered due to a Title 5 inspection report will be required to be inspected three to six months after normal consumption has been resumed. Normal water consumption shall be determined by reviewing two years water consumption history prior to reduction. Water records shall be used to determine that normal use of the building has resumed.
A. 
Until the follow-up inspection has been completed, the septic system's certification statement will be classified "Needs further evaluation by the local approving authority."
B. 
The follow-up inspection shall be conducted by the same inspector who performed the initial inspection, unless prior approval is granted by the Board of Health for a different inspector.
C. 
Normal consumption is defined as a family's average daily flow as long as it does not exceed the daily design flow for that property's septic system.
D. 
In the case where a system component is in need of repair or replacement and permitted as a minor repair, all certificates of compliance issued shall be marked "not for use in real estate transfer/Re-inspection required."
A. 
Any person who shall violate any provision of these regulations for which a penalty is not otherwise provided for in any of the General Laws or in any other provisions of Title 5 or Title 1 of the Environmental Code (310 CMR 11.00) shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than $10 nor more than $500.
B. 
Any person who shall fail to comply with any Order issued pursuant to the provisions of these regulations shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than $10 nor more than $500. Each day's failure to comply with an Order shall constitute a separate violation.