The guidelines can be used as a reference by communities interested in improving their onsite wastewater management programs to increase public health and environmental protection. They were structured to allow communities to pick and choose or entirely adopt sets of management criteria that will provide the necessary level of protection while balancing cost and other institutional factors.
States report failing septic systems as the third most common source of ground water contamination.
EPA estimates that approximately 168,000 viral and 34,000 bacterial illnesses each year result from drinking water systems that rely on ground water as their source. Malfunctioning septic systems are identified as one potential source of this contamination. The discharge of partially treated sewage from malfunctioning septic systems was identified as a principal or contributing factor in 32 percent of all harvest-limited shellfish growing areas. Onsite wastewater systems have also added to the overabundance of nutrients in ponds, lakes, and coastal estuaries. These guidelines are a result of that process.