Septic Engineer in Carthage, NY

Septic design in Carthage: the short answer

Carthage and West Carthage share a water pollution control facility, so homes on village mains need no septic design. The rest of the area, the river roads, the outwash terraces and the farms in the Towns of Wilna and Champion, treats wastewater on the lot.

Short answer: Carthage's outwash sand can drain too fast to treat effluent, while the till margins hold water well into spring. The design has to slow down the first and lift above the second.

Sewer or septic in the Carthage area

State funding records show the Villages of Carthage and West Carthage planning comprehensive upgrades to their shared Water Pollution Control Facility, plus separate Carthage studies on plant options and on inflow and infiltration.

Outside the two villages there is no general sewer service, and Jefferson County's septic replacement program covers the minor tributaries to the Black River among its priority waters.

How a septic design works in Carthage

1. Send the address and a few photos. Use the form below. Estimate in 1 hour for the design, the submittals and the install.
2. Confirm the lot needs septic. Village main means sewer. Outside the villages, plan on septic.
3. Deep hole and perc tests. Appendix 75-A calls for at least one test hole at least six feet deep at the proposed leaching area and at least two percolation tests for each system. Terrace pits often show loose sand and gravel; low pits show water perched in the till.
4. Design and stamp. Designs are prepared and stamped by a New York licensed Professional Engineer (PE), sized at a minimum of 110 gallons per day per bedroom for new construction.
5. Health department review for alternative systems. Under 10 NYCRR 75.5, a raised bed, mound or sand filter needs its plans reviewed and approved by the State or county health department with jurisdiction before construction. The state lists its Watertown District Office (Dulles State Office Building, 317 Washington St., Watertown) as the environmental health office for Jefferson County.
6. Building permit. The Jefferson County Fire Prevention and Building Code Department, 175 Arsenal St., Watertown, enforces the Uniform Code in the 31 municipalities that chose not to enforce it locally. It requires a county building permit for the installation of all septic systems and engineered septic plans when a new system is installed. If your city, town or village enforces the code itself, the permit comes from that office instead.
7. Install and certify. Backwell coordinates the excavation and builds the system to the approved plan. On an alternative system, a design professional supervises construction and certifies it to the health department.

Soils and seasonal water around Carthage

The Adams series, first established in Jefferson County in 1911, is very deep, excessively and somewhat excessively drained sand formed in glacial fluvial or glacial lake deposits, with high or very high conductivity. Colton gravelly loamy sand, described as excessively drained glacial fluvial soil on terraces, kames, eskers and outwash plains, is the other common terrace soil. These are the fast soils of the Carthage outwash.

On the calcareous till uplands Hogansburg and Grenville loams are moderately well to well drained, and Sun soils fill the low wet spots. A single Carthage parcel can have both fast sand and wet till, and the field goes where the soil test supports it.

What the health department checks

Jefferson is one of the counties New York serves through a state district office for environmental health: the NYSDOH Watertown District Office covers Jefferson and Lewis Counties. The design standard is the same statewide Appendix 75-A. For a lot in Carthage these are the items that decide the design:

• Soil that percolates faster than 1 minute per inch is not acceptable for a subsurface system unless it is blended with less permeable soil across the whole field area.
• 100 feet from an absorption field to a well or suction line, 200 feet if the field sits upgrade and in the drainage path to the well, and 50 feet from the septic tank to a well.
• Well separation goes up 50 percent when the well draws water from less than 50 feet below grade.
• 100 feet from an absorption field, raised bed or mound to a stream, lake, watercourse or wetland, measured to the mean high water mark, and 50 feet from the tank.

Common Carthage site problems and the design fix

Outwash sand faster than 1 minute per inch

Too fast to treat. The design blends the field area with less permeable soil, as Appendix 75-A requires, or places a mound with specified sand media.

Shallow well in the same sand

Fast sand moves effluent toward wells quickly. Well separation is 100 feet from the field, more if upgrade, and 50 percent more for wells drawing from less than 50 feet down.

River lot near the Black River

The field stays 100 feet from the river and out of ground below the 10 year flood level.

What it costs

We did not find a published plan review fee for a single home from the state district office or the county code office, so none is quoted here. The county code office bills the building permit fee after it checks your application.

Design and install are priced together in writing for the lot, because the soil picks the system. Blended or mound fields on fast outwash cost more than a field on moderate soil.

Grant money: Jefferson County Planning runs the NYS Septic Replacement Fund. The county flyer says homeowners may be reimbursed 50 percent of eligible costs up to $10,000 per system when the property is within 250 feet of a listed priority waterbody, the system is failing or likely to fail, and the lot is not in a sewer district. The county steps are: check the map, apply, hire a licensed contractor and engineer, then submit receipts.

Timeline

Testing, PE design, state approval for alternative systems, building permit, install.

Raised beds with finer fill wait six months through a freeze and thaw cycle; clean sand fill can be compacted in lifts. The schedule is in the written price.

Sources

• NYS Department of Health: District Environmental Health Programs
• Jefferson County Fire Prevention and Building Code Department: Building Permit Process
• Jefferson County Planning: NYS Septic Replacement Fund Program flyer and map
• NYS EFC: Septic System Replacement Fund Priority Waterbody List
• 10 NYCRR Appendix 75-A.4: Soil and site appraisal (Table 2 separation distances)
• 10 NYCRR Appendix 75-A.8: Conventional subsurface treatment systems
• 10 NYCRR Appendix 75-A.9: Alternative systems (raised, mound, sand filter)
• 10 NYCRR Appendix 75-A.3: Sewage flows
• 10 NYCRR Section 75.5: Minimum standards, design professional, alternative system approval
• NYS Regional Councils: Carthage and West Carthage Water Pollution Control Facility
• USDA NRCS Official Series Description: Adams
• USDA NRCS Official Series Description: Colton
• USDA NRCS Official Series Description: Hogansburg
• USDA NRCS Official Series Description: Grenville

Rules and fees as published by the agencies above when this page was written; they can change. The approved plan for your lot controls.