Opinion ID: 2280120
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Table 9-1 and Holding Tanks for Seasonal Dwellings

Text: As his third argument the Plaintiff contends on appeal that, even if the Department has the authority to regulate holding tanks, both the Department and the court below erred in construing the Code to prohibit the holding tanks proposed here. The Plaintiff's initial application for permits to install one holding tank on each parcel in the event the Department concluded septic systems would be impermissible was rejected. In a letter addressed to the Plaintiff the Department found that the soil, beach sand, on each lot was of Profile 11 type and that installation of any system (septic or holding tank) was prohibited in such soil pursuant to Table 9-1 of the Code. The Department also found that § 7.6(e) of the Code prohibited installation of holding tanks for new construction. Accordingly, because the Department concluded that the Plaintiff did not comply with the prerequisites for a variance under § 3.6, [5] it denied him the permits he requested. [6] The Plaintiff specifically argues that Table 9-1 or § 7.6 cannot reasonably be interpreted to prohibit the holding tank permits he sought. Table 9-1, he contends, should not apply to installation of holding tanks in Profile 11 soil because the Table is concerned with the capacity of sewage beds to safely absorb wastewater, a factor not relevant to holding tanks. He also contends that the use of the adjective principle (sic) in the second sentence of § 7.6 implies that holding tanks appurtenant to seasonal dwellings are not prohibited and that the Department is obliged to approve applications for installation of holding tanks for seasonal dwellings if the other requirements of § 7.6 are met and the proposed system otherwise complies with the Code. This Court must affirm the judgment below, and thus uphold the Department's action, if the Department's interpretation and application of the provisions in question was not arbitrary or unreasonable. Matter of Lappie, Me., 377 A.2d 441, 444 (1977). We do not reach the issue raised by the Plaintiff concerning § 7.6 because we conclude that the Department's interpretation and application of Table 9-1 was neither arbitrary nor unreasonable. Table 9-1 clearly provided that where the soil of a site is Profile 11 type, [s]ystems ARE NOT PERMITTED on these particular soils within the Shoreland Zoning Area. The parties to this appeal do not dispute that the sites at which the Plaintiff proposed to install holding tanks were within the Shoreland Zoning Area and had soil of Profile 11 type. Accordingly, the issue before us can be reduced to the question of whether the Department's conclusion that the word systems included holding tank systems was not arbitrary or unreasonable, even though Chapter 9 of the Code and Table 9-1 clearly focused on regulation of systems, which unlike holding tanks, involve proper filtration and absorbtion of regularly discharged wastewater into nearby soil beds. While the prohibition on installation of all subsurface sewage disposal systems is inartfully, if not inconveniently, placed in the midst of a table otherwise concerned with the size of disposal area, applying that prohibition to holding tank systems is supported by the broad definition of systems set forth in the Code and the substantial relation such a prohibition has to public health. Chapter 2 of the Code defined system to include holding tanks. [7] Moreover, Chapter 9 provided that a system, for purposes of approval under that chapter, consisted of a building sewer, treatment tank and disposal area . . . . Maine State Plumbing Code § 9.1 c. 9 (1978). Chapter 2 also included holding tanks within the definition of treatment tanks. [8] Thus, the general definition of systems set forth in Chapter 2 of the Code and the definition provided at the outset of Chapter 9 are fully consistent with the Department's interpretation of Table 9-1 to prohibit the installation of holding tanks in Profile 11 soils. Neither is the Department's interpretation and application of the Profile 11 prohibition without a rational basis. As the Department notes in its brief, installation of holding tanks in so-called alluvial and beach deposit soils poses risks to public health because of possible leakage, tank overflows, and tidal flooding in the shoreland zone. Risks are also posed by the propensity of beach sand soils to erode or to shift drastically. Moreover, the record suggests that the Department was especially concerned about the propensity of holding tanks to leak and about the capacity of certain bacteria to survive in Profile 11 soils longer than in other soil types. Thus, on the record before us, we cannot say that such risks to public health are not mitigated by application of the Table's Profile 11 prohibition to all systems, including holding tanks. We therefore conclude, as did the court below, that the Department's interpretation and application of Table 9-1 to the holding tank systems proposed by Lewis was neither arbitrary nor unreasonable. [9]