Septic Planning

We had the Lapeer county sanitarian (Chip) come over and look at our property layout. There are some specific site requirements when building the newer berm systems. We had initially scouted out a large bowel shaped area on the property so any mound wouldn't be as noticeable. This area didn't sit right with the sanitarian as it would be prone to gathering water during heavy rainfall.

After talking with the sanitarian a bit, it seems that all they do nowadays are berm type systems in our area. I'm told the berm systems seem to perform better but have a large upfront cost compared to traditional ditch systems

I asked the sanitarian how our particular soil was on a scale of  1 to 10, 10 being the best for septic systems. He stated ours was about a 5 and the usual rating for Elba Twp was about a 3.


Costs for Today: $425
$125 for a sanitary department employee to come onsite and inspect the soil, as well as file the permit application.
$225 for an excavator to come and dig two large holes in the ground for soil inspection.

After talking with our builder a bit after the meeting we got an idea of what the system will cost. The builder estimates the system at just under $12,000.

Below is a diagram we created to submit to the sanitarian for the septic application. The main thing they wanted to see was existing well septic locations for us and the neighbor and the clearances from the proposed changes.