Growing concerns within Greater Hume Shire Council are the majority of older septic tank systems that can no longer cope with the increase of reticulated water use.

Council believes the problem will be more proliferate and more problematic in villages such as Gerogery and Woomargama due to the concentration of small lots and dwellings. It’s being anticipated a village wide system will cost around $30,000 per property to implement plus the ongoing operational costs.

Mr Greg Blackie, Greater Hume Shire Director of Engineering said “The addition of reticulated water to the villages has been a great benefit to the lifestyles of residents living in these villages; however the impact of increased availability and usage of water and subsequent increase in the discharge is too much for these older systems to handle. It has been an ongoing concern for some time now but issues are now arising since the return of winter rains”.

Mr Blackie added “Council will be investigating how to finance this project using State or Federal Government funding. This funding will allow us to explore options available to solve this problem which won’t be resolved overnight. This isn’t a new problem; Councils all over Australia with aging properties are facing the same issues”.

Gerogery resident Mr Jack Jaksetic said “I have lived here for 21 years and am unaware of any problems with resident’s septic tanks. We are located near a creek but only this year has it had a rush of water flowing through it. The only smells we get here are from the pulp mill down the road. We don’t ever get smells from septic tanks and wouldn’t this tell if there was problem?”

Greater Hume Shire Councillor Heather Wilton said “The first stage of this investigation is to commission a scoping study to determine the cost, urgency and basic steps required to fix these problems. We need to look at issues like the soil type and creek locations to determine just what work needs to be done”.