ELIMSPORT — A small Lycoming County business said a planned biosolids operations will allow it to avoid doubling the rate charged to customers due to a need to comply with Chesapeake Bay pollution cut standards.

Jerry Foresman, general manager of Foresman Septic Services in Elimsport, says his family business is weeks away from launching its own biosolids operation that will turn septic waste into usable fertilizers for local farmers.

The result will keep septic cleaning costs low, staying around $150 per service, while some septic system owners face hikes up to $250 or more as haulers deal with increased fees from local municipal waste treatment plants, according to Foresman.

“The (state) would rather see the nitrates in the ground than in the water,” Foresman said. “At a treatment plant, the waste gets pressed with half of it going to the landfill and the other half dumped into the river, eventually making its way to the Chesapeake Bay.”

Foresman said the cost of hauling waste to treatment plants has already increased with the plants preparing to upgrade their facilities in order to meet the Chesapeake Bay cleanup initiative, which was designed to reduce the amount of pollution entering the bay’s watershed.

“The treatment plants have to charge haulers more, because they have to treat the nitrates more aggressively,” Foresman said. “This could give us an edge in our field, because if haulers have to increase their rates to handle the treatment plant increases, we can keep our rates the same.”

Foresman said, depending on how efficient the system works, the septic company may visit a home once a month or once every three years. Worst case scenario has homeowners facing $3,000 a year to have their septic systems cleaned once the rate increase hits, he added, or twice as much as they now pay.

According to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), homeowners are required to empty their on-lot septic systems once every three years or whenever a municipal inspection program says the tank needs to be emptied. The regulation is based on a municipal sewage facilities plan that includes a sewage management plan, according to Dan Spadoni, DEP spokesman.

Officials at the environmental agency believe that turning municipal waste into fertilizer has great benefits.

“Properly treated residential septage is a source of organic matter, nutrients and alkalinity, which can improve crop growth and the quality and structure of soil,” Spadoni said. “The use of (them) frequently allows farmers to save money on commercial fertilizers.”

Additionally, Spadoni said the treated material can help the reclamation of mining sites and save valuable landfill space, thus lessening the cost of treating the waste at a municipal sewage treatment plant.

Foresman said impending upgrades at local treatment plants forced the 35-year-old family business with five employees to look for a cheaper alternative to hauling waste. The trickle down effect, according to Foresman, will result in increased fees from the treatment plants on septic haulers dropping off waste.

“They kind of scared us into this,” Foresman said. “We dump close to 1.9 million gallons of waste at treatment plants each year. We’ve been told to expect significant rate increases, and they’re already started to rise.”

Foresman said local sewer plants recently raised their fees by 0.1-cent up to 0.5-cent per gallon, which equates to roughly $10,000 a year for Foresman Septic Services. Seeing the beginning of what projects to be more increases, Foresman said it was time for the company to pursue a change.

“Everybody is going to feel the impact,” Foresman said. “In fact, we’re already seeing it.”

Foresman said customers as far north as Trout Run, Lycoming County, and far south as Herndon, Northumberland County, will benefit from the new biosolids facility. As will customers as far east to Bloomsburg and west to Laurelton, he added.

“This is a green solution to handling residential septic services,” said Foresman, adding that the $200,000 facility will be anchored by a 500,000 gallon storage tank connected to a garbage screening machine and lime mixer. “We will not accept grease, industrial waste or sewer plant sludge. It’s also going to be a great benefit to the soil and save farmers money from purchasing man-made manure.”

According to Foresman, trucks will unload the residential waste at its Elimsport site, roughly eight miles north of Allenwood. There, the waste will get screened three times for garbage and then mixed with lime, which neutralizes pathogens and odor. The final product will be perfect for farmers to spread on their fields, Foresman said.

“We’ve already had farmers inquire about having fertilizer for their land,” Foresman said. “Our fertilizer will have both nitrate and lime. Right now, they spray nitrate and then add the lime. If they can replace man-made manure with this we hope to save them more than 50 percent of what they pay now ($700 to $1,000 per ton).”

For more information on biosolids operations and the benefits, visit www.depweb.state.ps.us/biosolids.

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