Sept. 6, 2010

King: Sewage law enforcement is Commission's job

By Scott Wright

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CENTRE — Probate Judge Melvyn Salter and the Cherokee County Commission made official last Monday what they had already found out several days earlier: It is their job to enforce a local law designed to limit the dumping of untreated sewage into Weiss Lake.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King on Aug. 20 delivered a long-awaited answer to questions posed by Salter regarding the specifics of the law. Passed by the Legislature in 2001, the law mandates that property owners in resorts and recreational areas around Weiss Lake must hook onto any available sewage system in the event that theirs fails or becomes inadequate.

One of several questions posed to King by Salter in February asked who has the authority and responsibility to enforce the law, which also establishes a system of fines, property liens and connection charges to pay for the $2,000 cost of connecting to a decentralized sewage system.

King's office was succinct in its answer.

“The responsibility of enforcement ultimately lies with the Cherokee County Commission,” the AG wrote. “It is the county commission under the local law that has the authority to assess civil fines for violations and failure to connect.”

At the end of an otherwise routine County Commission meeting on Aug. 30, Salter spoke for almost 10 minutes about the attorney general's opinion and the possibilities it presents for ending decades of apathy by county government when it comes to cleaning up the 30,000-acre reservoir.

“This is the only place I know where I pay to ingest someone else's body waste,” Salter said. “Each year many people ingest this water while skiing and swimming. Is it going to take someone directly affected with an illness, or the loss of life, before we … accept the reality that it is [our] place to do something about cleaning up the lake?”

Previous commissions have balked at enforcement, even though a committee appointed by the Commission in 1999 recommended a statutory solution to the sewage problem.

At present, the Weiss Lake Improvement Association estimates there are around 14,000 light campers, cabin-type summer homes, and other recreational vehicles around Weiss that do not properly dispose of their sewage.

Cases of substandard sewage systems in the county – including one discovered last week – range from rusted oil drums to improperly installed and leaky stand-alone systems known as buddy tanks. In several cases, buried pipes that dump directly into Weiss Lake have reportedly been discovered.

Local Rep. Richard Lindsey, D-Centre, was instrumental in getting the 2001 law passed. Last month, he told The Post he is disturbed that nothing has been done with the law in the decade it has been on the books.

In 1999, Lindsey said, “there was extensive debate and support for doing everything possible in Cherokee County to clean up Weiss Lake.”

Canaan Systems, one of the few companies operating decentralized sewage systems in Cherokee County, has been under fire recently for a string of equipment failures which led to sewage spills in at least two locations near Weiss Lake.

Ultimately, after several media reports and repeated denials of responsibility by local and state health officials, Canaan Systems was fined by the state Health Department and ordered to get its facilities in order.

In his statement, Salter addressed the perception that he believes some officials and private citizens have with Canaan Systems.

“What I fear has happened and will continue to happen by all of us is to use Canaan Systems as an excuse for doing nothing,” he said. “I would not promote any particular system. But at present, I don't think the No. 1 decentralized system in America would be allowed to do business in Cherokee County because they would have to charge a fee that is approved by the Public Service Commission and we don't want to upset anyone — especially the 80 percent-plus who own or rent recreational lots [but] live outside the county.”

There has also been speculation for at least a year that Canaan Systems has failed to forward a four percent tax on gross receipts that it began collecting from customers when it commenced operations in Cherokee County several years ago.

But in his letter to King, Salter conceded that no record exists of the County Commission ever voting to collect the tax.

“It's fair to say that Canaan Systems may have collected that money in anticipation of a tax being levied by the county,” Salter said last week. “But I've been through all the minutes and all the resolutions; I can't find anywhere that the Commission ever passed that tax.”

In his letter King made it clear that if the county has never assessed the tax, then they cannot collect the fee from Canaan Systems or any other private company operating within the county — even if the companies were following standard procedure by collecting the money.

“The County Commission should not assume that it has levied the fees based upon the fact that the wastewater providers have held four percent of its gross sales in an escrow account,” King's office wrote.

King's letter also stated that any future ordinance passed by the Commission would not be considered retroactive “unless the legislating body makes its intent to do so very clear.”

County Commissioner Kimball Parker said Salter's thoughts about the impact of the attorney general's letter do not reflect his own.

“The statement that Judge Salter read at the conclusion of the Aug. 30 meeting is his opinion, not mine,” Parker said. “And I think the AG's opinion speaks for itself.”

Parker said he and his fellow commissioners are well aware of the desperate need to clean up Weiss Lake.

“I think we all want to do something to get the lake cleaned up,” Parker said. “But I want to do it in a way that is fair to everyone.”

Also in his statement, Salter suggested possible alternatives to relying on controversial private sewage companies, including applying for a USDA loan that would allow the county to begin constructing its own decentralized sewage systems around the lake.

"We could let this system be owned by the Cherokee County Water and Sewer Authority, or it could be owned by the Decentralized Waster Water Authority," Salter said. "This system would be regulated ... and [collect] connection fees and monthly charges."