COSTS GOING UP
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

PHOTO BY ROB PRICE Lake Salubria is one area of the Town of Bath where residents can expect to face rising expenses related to the replacement of septic systems.

BATH - The price of living in the country is going up.

Bath town officials warn the new year will bring a substantial increase in the price of new septic systems as a result of more stringent enforcement of health regulations.

New septic systems will require the approval of a certified engineer at a cost of $500, according to Code Enforcement Officer Al Buckland. An additional $300 may be charged for a followup engineering inspection.

Buckland said he had been authorized to sign off on new septic systems until the end of 2006, when the state Health Department indicated it would require a certified engineer's stamp on septic system blueprints.

"I was allowed to do it, but now they're clamping down on everybody," Buckland said.

The engineering stamp of approval comes on top of the actual cost of engineering and constructing a septic system. Town officials are working to ease those construction costs by acquiring a file of boilerplate system designs, according to Deputy Supervisor Robin Lattimer. "The town is trying to make those available to homeowners, so the wheel doesn't have to be reinvented," Lattimer said.

Tougher state regulations will have a particular impact on densely populated areas of towns, such as the Lake Salubria community, Lattimer added. "As people on Lake Salubria face the possibility of ... replacing their septic systems, they will have to get variances or very expensive engineered septic systems to comply with new regulations," she warned.

Those financial pressures in turn could make the possibility of municipal water and sewage systems more attractive in population-dense areas, said Buckland. "Down the road, it should be more feasible to have a municipal sewage system - then they wouldn't have to pay all these costs."

Town officials last year explored the possibility of extending water and sewer lines from the Village of Bath into the Lake Salubria and Spaulding Drive areas. In spite of state and federal grants and low-interest loans, the $8.5 million project would have cost water and sewer users nearly $800 a year for 30 years, according to an ad hoc committee charged with planning the project.

The effort was abandoned in February when two petition drives - one for a sewer district, the other for water