12/11/12 - The Howell Township Board is considering changing ordinance requirements for users located within a certain distance from its sewer system. The municipality enforces a state code that says those located within 200 feet of a sewer line and have been notified in writing are required to connect. Per that same code, anyone outside of the 200 feet does not have to connect to the public sanitary sewer system. The state and health department discourage more septic fields going in so municipalities are allowed to override that portion of state code and require that a user within a specified distance connect to a sewer system. Clerk Carolyn Eaton tells WHMI that the board is considering implementing a more stringent ordinance requirement, although itâs still unclear exactly what the distance would be. Officials will be contacting other townships to see what they average and then have legal counsel investigate whether that it is feasible or not. Eaton says there was also talk of contacting a contractor to see how much the cost would be per linear foot to connect and determine if there is a breaking point where it suddenly it gets extremely expensive for a user so perhaps that could serve as the cut-off point. The board has been grappling to with the municipalityâs bad water and sewer debt, left mostly by developers when the economy crashed. Voters have twice turned down a related millage request and while the municipality could raise water and rates again, officials say theyâre already so far behind the rates would be way too high to actually do that. If the budget shows a deficit next year, then itâs possible the board would qualify for a state loan. (JM)
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