On-site Feedback

The Branch has been working on major revisions to the onsite water protection monthly activity report (please see attached). We simplified the report in the hope that we’ll get a higher percentage of LHDs reporting and to help ensure that the data we are receiving is more accurate. Currently, we are only getting about 50% of the counties reporting, and I’m very concerned this will have a negative impact on our profession in the future.

This data is very important to the Branch and is used in many ways:
Required annual reporting to EPA/DEQ.
Clean Watersheds Needs Survey (CWNS) which helps to secure funding from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (this past year was the 1st time in the history of the program that we were allowed to participate in the CWNS).
Legislative inquiries or legislative bill reviews (I have been able to use data to stop a bill from passing due to the fiscal impact I calculated).
Assessment of new wastewater products to help determine approval/disapproval (we often use existing data to help estimate failure rates of certain products in a certain time period).
Fiscal notes for rulemaking. I keep track of private option vs. public option permitting to see how much the percentages are changing.

The 2nd tab in the spreadsheet, the Large System/IPWW database, is necessary for us because we have to report these numbers to EPA, but also because we are heavily involved in the permitting and maintenance of these systems.

If the NC Environmental Health Supervisor’s Association has interest in providing any feedback on these changes, I would love to hear that feedback. Particularly, I would love to hear if NCEHSA believes these changes will increase reporting, and if NCEHSA has anything else they would like to see on the report. I’ll be happy to meet and discuss this matter with anyone interested.

Thank you!