Oshtemo Township’s Board took a first step toward requiring septic tanks be pumped before connecting to new public sewer lines.
Public Works Director Anna Horner presented the proposed change as part of the township’s ongoing USDA Neighborhood Sanitary Sewer Expansion project. As staff have connected more homes to public sewer, Horner told the board they’ve regularly encountered septic systems in poor or undocumented condition with failed pumps, drywells without proper bottoms, utility lines bored directly through tanks, trees planted over buried infrastructure, and homeowners who don’t know where their own septic system is located or how long it’s been since it was last serviced. She walked the board through photo examples of specific systems staff had found during recent projects.
Under the proposed ordinance amendment, homeowners would be required to have their septic tank fully pumped by a licensed hauler at the time of sewer connection. Crushing or filling the tank or drywell afterward to prevent it from later collapsing into a void, would be recommended but not required. Township officials pointed to past fatal accidents elsewhere involving improperly abandoned septic systems as part of the rationale for addressing the issue.
Board members debated whether to go further and mandate the crushing and filling step. Trustee Michael Chapman said he wasn’t comfortable making it mandatory without more information on cost and actual risk. During public comment, a former licensed septic installer with over 30 years of experience in Kalamazoo County told the board that pump-out and disposal costs alone could run at least $1,000 per structure, with disposal of contaminated soil around older tanks adding significantly more and that some contamination is treated as hazardous waste requiring special disposal. Treasurer Clare Buszka argued from a safety standpoint, saying an empty, unfilled cavity poses a real risk of collapse years later. Another resident who recently decommissioned a septic tank on his own property told the board his son’s equipment recovery company once had to pull a piece of heavy equipment out of a septic tank that collapsed after a vehicle drove over it.
The board ultimately kept the crushing and filling requirement as a recommendation rather than a mandate, with several trustees noting the ordinance could be revisited later if needed. The board vote approved the amendment’s first reading only with a second reading, and possible final adoption, scheduled for the board’s August 25 meeting.
