ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — There are at least 360,000 septic tanks in our nine-county coverage area in Northeast Florida, and less than a dozen words in the newly signed 74-page farm bill could make servicing them much more expensive.
The law states, starting July 1st, 2028, biosolid land application sites shall “ensure that only Class AA biosolids are applied to the soil”.
For Keith Burney, owner of Burney’s Septic Tank Service, those words amount to a mandatory multi-million dollar upgrade to his private treatment facility.
“We don’t do enough volume to do that,” said Burney.
Facilities like Burney’s treat septic waste into Class B biosolids, which are currently allowed to be applied to soil.
But once the change kicks in, septic waste will have to be treated to much higher standards.
Burney argued that since it is cost-prohibitive for companies like his to upgrade their facilities, they’ll likely have to take septic waste to municipal wastewater treatment facilities.
But he explained those municipal facilities charge more and are oftentimes much further away, and those costs will be passed along to homeowners. in need of septic tank services.
“I would say once this all take effect, yeah, I would say everything is gonna at least double,” said Burney.
Executive Director of the Florida Onsite Wastewater Association, Roxanne Groover, added, technically, municipal treatment facilities are under no legal obligation to take septic waste at all.
“We could end up having no place for a homeowner to discharge their septage legally,” said Groover.
Groover said that’s a worst-case scenario that could play out in some parts of the state.
Thankfully for Burney, there are municipal facilities within driving distance that do accept septic waste.
Even still, he argued the end result will be higher prices for homeowners, whether they’re on septic or sewer.
“It’s gonna end up costing everybody more money. Even the people that pay for sewer bills right now,” said Burney. ”Their sewer bills are gonna go up because the municipalities or the treatment plants, it’s gonna cost them more to treat everything.”
Groover said the septic industry plans to make reversing this law its number one legislative priority in next year’s session, and possibly even the one after that as well.
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