The Manitoba government recently announced finalized amendments to its Onsite Wastewater Management Systems Regulation to address concerns about the province’s phase-out of sewage ejectors.
The NDP government continues to come up with more rules and regulations in the name of health, safety, and the environment, but with little concern for economic sustainability. The latest regs could put in jeopardy the sale of such a farmyard in southeastern Manitoba.
Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie said the amendments respond to the concerns of rural homeowners while continuing to ensure the protection of human health and the environment. These measures continue as part of the province’s overall effort to reduce potential impacts on water quality.
“For most people, this is a step in a positive direction,” said Les Routledge who lives on an acreage near Killarney, Mb. “The devil will still be in the details and figuring out how hard it will be to secure approval for an existing system. On the other hand, it does make sense that there should be an inspection of sewage systems for all homes sold to protect the buyer (and the real estate agent) from nasty surprises.”
Routledge said around his area, the news is that Manitoba Conservation is launching inspections of septic systems on properties around Killarney Lake. Again, this action makes sense and it should have been done in the past for all lake-side properties. At a minimum, they too should have required an inspection of the system by a qualified person before the property sale could move forward.
“One additional factor I would like to see is to give discretion to the staff to permit systems that are near the property line in a situation where there is an agreement with a neighbouring farm and the property was sub-divided after the system had been installed,” he said. “For example, if there is only one house on an 80 acre parcel of land, there should be some discretion to permit the system to operate even though it is located close to a property line.”
There are several examples where a farmyard was subdivided from the farm land in the past without restriction on set-back of the ejector system from the property line when the subdivision occurred.
“To me, those systems should be grand fathered if there is no environmental risk,” he said.
The government said rural homeowners considering transferring or subdividing a property may now apply to the province to retain an existing sewage ejector following property transfer or subdivision, provided the sewage ejector is:
- not located within an environmentally sensitive area,
- located on a minimum of 10 acres, and
- in compliance with all other regulatory requirements.
Homeowners selling their property may also apply to transfer the responsibility of phasing out the ejector to the new homeowner or to extend the time available for the phase-out. As in the original rules, the new requirements have no impact on any property owner who is not transferring or subdividing.
A low-interest loan program is being developed by the province for those who may be required to replace their sewage ejector systems for property transfer or subdivision.
