(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Environmental Protection Commission has approved an update of rules on septic systems. Eric Wiklund of the D-N-R’s Water Quality Bureau says the change involves aerobic treatment units or A-T-U’s, which are an alternative to the normal septic tank systems. “An aerobic treatment unit is like a small activated sludge plant where you don’t have the physical media in there. They’re using aeration and mixing to create that environment where the microbes will consume the material and produce clean water at the other end. They use oxygen where the other ones use a media,” Wiklund says. Wiklund says the update drops the requirement that A-T-U’s run its water through a soil absorption system or a sand filter as a third step before discharging treated water.

“It ends up being kind of a prohibition A-T-U’s because if you can use soil absorption, you’re already required to do it, so if you have to use soil absorption on an A-T-U, you probably can’t because of the way that the soils are or just the groundwater. So it really has put them at a disadvantage,” he says. There were some people who spoke out against the change, saying the water from the aerobic units could lead to pollution. The majority of people who spoke at the Environmental Protection Commission meeting said they supported the change as studies show the treated water meets the same standards of other methods. Wiklund says the rules are now the same for whatever is used.

“All these alternative units, whether they’re media filters or aerobic treatment units, they all have to meet the same standards for testing in Iowa. And we want everybody to be able to. meet that same standard and be treated equally.” Wiklund says. The change came after the governor mandated agencies review their rules to cut burdensome regulations. Wiklund says the change allows for the use of new ideas. “We want innovation to be available to come to Iowa. So if there’s new treatment technologies and they meet that same standard, that same national standard, they can all be utilized in Iowa, ” he says. Those who spoke out against the rule change also say the aerobic systems require more maintenance and if that is not done there can be polluted water released. Wiklund says the extra maintenance is figured into the rule change.

“In the case of the A-T-U’s, everybody knows they do need more frequent maintenance, typically twice a year. So the rule supports that. If the manufacturer requires maintenance twice per year, then our rule is going to require maintenance twice per year. The counties are required to track those maintenance agreements and ensure that the maintenance is occurring,” he says. Wiklund estimates there are more than 10-thousand septic systems in Iowa, though he says it’s hard to get a count. He says the can be individual homes, or groups of homes that share one system together.

The new rules will go into effect in August.