What type of engineering services do counties offer when it comes to septic and water system design and construction oversight? How many FTEs in engineering do counties carry?

At Albany County, we offer septic design services for residential onsite wastewater treatment systems. Our Public Health Technicians and Sanitarians visit the site with the owner and their contractor to conduct soil test pits and percolation tests. From this data, the systems are designed by those techs and sanitarians. As construction commences, they perform periodic inspections of the installation of the OWTS and make sure it conforms to the approved plans. Throughout these processes, a professional engineer on our staff oversees the technical work and advises the PH Technicians and Sanitarians.

On the private water supply side, the techs and sanitarians take chemical, physical, and bacteriological samples after the well has been installed and determine if any treatment is required for the well. Engineers also assist with this process and if there is a difficult site, our engineers will advise placement with regard to location of the water and septic, pump and tank installation and anything else needed to assist with installing the well and septic properly and in a location for maximum use and function. The field personnel will also conduct final bacteriological sampling prior to signing off on the project to the local building official. Engineers will troubleshoot and advise throughout this process as needed.

We have two FTE Engineers on staff. One is a P.E. and the other is a Ph.D. In addition to overseeing water and septic personnel and design issues, they also handle public water supplies oversight and inspections, Air quality issues, Water Cooling Tower reporting and follow-up, swimming pool engineering issues, private water and septic installations at new and existing food service establishments and any other questions and issues that require their expertise.

The Broome County Health Department offers design services for septic system replacements, and technical assistance for water systems as needed. For new septic and water system installations we review and approve plans that come in from other Professional Engineers. We currently have 1 FTE in engineering staff employed within Environmental Health. Please let me know if you need any other information.

Cayuga County has one PE on staff. We do not provide design services for septic systems or public water systems but rather we review plans designed by other professional engineers.

Prior to May of 2018 we had an engineer that served as the environmental health director (ehd). He approved the following:

• septic system designs (nothing extravagant, cookie cutter systems)
• backflow precentors
• realty subdivisions
• swimming pools
• hotel/motel
• note: he also served as county code officer

After May of 2018 when our engineer retired we looked into hiring an engineer and it did not work out, we could not find a good candidate for the money the county wanted to offer so we did the following:

• Contracted with the engineers in our county sewer district and promoted the supervising sanitarian to ehd
• The relationship has been phenomenal!
• The sewer district engineers perform all the same duties I mentioned above
• They benefit as well as they deal with the same issues with the same contractors so we have been able to hold those contractors more accountable
• The engineers meet with our staff 1-2 times per week and as needed

We have been able to highlight this collaboration to our budget office and our county administration. In terms of staffing:

• As mentioned we don’t carry any FTE’s for engineering
• Our sewer district has 3 engineers that work with our staff
• They bill us based on the hours they work at an average price of all their salaries

In Clinton County, our Health Department’s Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Division has one Professional Engineer = 1 FTE (also the Director of EHS Division) who has oversight and review/approval authority for specific water system and sewage treatment systems work as appropriated by the NYSDOH – As an example, for water systems, we have primary design plan review/approval authority for water line extensions/replacements while we share design plan review/approval authority with the NYSDOH for public water treatment plan upgrades, changes… Similarly, for sewage treatment systems, we have primary authority for design plan reviews/approvals for all residential settings as well as smaller facility type systems (<10,000 gpd) but for these we always reach out and talk with the applicable NYSDEC rep to make sure we’re on the same page… As part of larger engineering project submittals we regularly request a meeting with the owner/operator and their design engineer to discuss Basis of Design parameters and initial project planning.

For both residential sewage treatment systems and facility water systems, we have a rotating DUTY OFFICER (Public Health Sanitarian) that rotates every week (available during all work hours every day) to meet with facility owners/operators to review their (typically smaller/limited) plan designs provided on our Health Department specific Water System and Individual Sewage Treatment System template APPLICATIONS… The Duty Officer will seek the assistance of our Professional Engineer as needed depending upon plan submission complexity…. You can obtain these APPLICATIONS on our www.clintonhealth.org website. SO… In this scenario, our public health sanitarians play a design plan review roll, to a very limited extent, only reviewing and approving small/limited design plans, for our most common customers, AND under the direct supervision of our P.E. Because our sanitarians as well (as our PE) inspect water and sewage treatment systems, our sanitarians often have solid insight into the design and construction of such systems. Although we inspect all sewage treatment systems and water systems, for larger (engineered) sewage treatment systems and public water system project, we require the design engineer to complete project inspection, including submittal of a Letter of Completed Works after project completion.

Columbia County has a one FTE engineer but is contemplating a reduction to .5 FTE due to the drop off in single lot development. At present we assist homeowners and their contractors with design work but that may change with the reduction in the position.

All new septic systems and water systems are designed by design professionals – none designed here. We perform plan review and approval, not design. However, all soil testing used to design septic systems, percs and deeps, are witnessed by our office. During construction, septic systems are inspected by our office during construction at different stages depending on type of system – but we reserve the right to require engineer certification of construction on certain systems. All water systems improvements require a certification of construction compliance be submitted by project engineer before our staff will conduct sampling prior to placing in service.

We complete these tasks with 1 Senior Public Health Engineer (P.E.), and 3 full time Public Health Sanitarians. Manager of EH is also a P.E. and can help when needed.

4 FTE’s

• Realty Subdivision; Plan Review
• Private well water supply; Inspection, Plan Review
• Private Sewage Disposal Systems; Design Plan Review, Design, Inspection & Construction
• Certification, Testing/Evaluation, Dye Test review
• Community Sanitary Sewer; Plan Review
• Community Water Supply; Inspection, Plan Review
• Public Water Supply; Sampling/Analysis Review, Operator Certification
• Non-Community Water Supply; Inspection, Sampling/Analysis Review, Plan review
• Bottled and Bulk water; Inspection, Sampling/Analysis Review
• Cross Connection Control; Plan Review
• Swimming Pool/Spa; Plan Review
• Mobile Home Park; Plan Review
• Cooling Tower; Inspection, Compliance, Investigation

Oswego County approves septic and water system designing. One FTI engineer, very tightened.

In Schuyler County we contract for the engineering services needed by our Watershed Department. In Yates County this service is not offered and individuals would need to go through the Soil and Water which is separate from Public Health.