The new Bernalillo County Wastewater Ordinance, which proposes stricter requirements for septic systems, system installers and evaluators, is ready to be published. County environmental engineer Clara Cates presented the ordinance to the Groundwater Protection Advisory Board on Aug. 10 at Los Vecinos Community Center west of Tijeras. At the meeting, Cates told the board and a few residents that the county needs to impose stricter requirements on septic systems to prevent ground water contamination. Under the proposed ordinance, new septic systems will be required to have an effluent filter, which prevents large waste particles from entering the disposal field.
Septic tanks collect waste water.
The proposed ordinance calls for all existing septic systems to come into compliance with new regulations by 2015, unless the systems are malfunctioning. If a septic system is malfunctioning, property owners will be required to comply with the ordinance when repairs are made, said Cates. Businesses with a 2,000-gallon flow per day will be required to comply with the ordinance within three years after it is passed, said Cates. Flow is the number of gallons that pass through a system. The average residential septic tank for a three-bedroom house is 1,000 gallons, with a flow of 375 gallons per day, Cates said.