April 6th I sold/closed on my property in Craven Couty and began actively looking for another place. Well, May 1st I found one, made an offer that was accepted contingent on a perk test. Been fighting county environmental services tooth and nail ever since.
I had hedged my bets before I made the offer. I had a good friend, a certified soil scientist for the State, come out and perk the place for me before I made the offer so I knew what I had. He perked the whole place and we found an area, near the roadway and adjacent to an old homestead with an existing system, that should have only required a standard system and another, where I really wanted to build, that would require a mound system. I'm ok with that.
Applied for the septic permit/perk test on May 7th after being required to spend $300 to have a forestry cutter come in and punch a road and several grids for the inspector. Guess they didn't want to get their tennis shoes dirty. TWO MONTHS LATER...in Pamlico County, some of the slowest development in the state.... I finally get the results. They totally ruled out the area where I wanted to build, wouldn't allow a system of any configuration, and in the area adjacent to the old homestead where we found the best soil drainage they would still require an 18" mound.
The area nearest the old homestead is out of the question, I'd have to remove and dispose of three old buildings that have fallen to the ground. The costs would be astronomical and I don't want to be that close to the roadway anyway. The area in the back of the property is 2' higher in elevation in an awesome stand of old growth timber.
The bottom line is that if I go by the County's numbers I'm going to have to add a secondary tank, a pump station, and pump about 100 yards to the drain field. Numbers I'm getting right now are pushing $14K for a two bedroom system. That's more than the cost of the 4.25 acres of land.....
There has to be a way around this county yahoo. Somebody help me find it!
I had hedged my bets before I made the offer. I had a good friend, a certified soil scientist for the State, come out and perk the place for me before I made the offer so I knew what I had. He perked the whole place and we found an area, near the roadway and adjacent to an old homestead with an existing system, that should have only required a standard system and another, where I really wanted to build, that would require a mound system. I'm ok with that.
Applied for the septic permit/perk test on May 7th after being required to spend $300 to have a forestry cutter come in and punch a road and several grids for the inspector. Guess they didn't want to get their tennis shoes dirty. TWO MONTHS LATER...in Pamlico County, some of the slowest development in the state.... I finally get the results. They totally ruled out the area where I wanted to build, wouldn't allow a system of any configuration, and in the area adjacent to the old homestead where we found the best soil drainage they would still require an 18" mound.
The area nearest the old homestead is out of the question, I'd have to remove and dispose of three old buildings that have fallen to the ground. The costs would be astronomical and I don't want to be that close to the roadway anyway. The area in the back of the property is 2' higher in elevation in an awesome stand of old growth timber.
The bottom line is that if I go by the County's numbers I'm going to have to add a secondary tank, a pump station, and pump about 100 yards to the drain field. Numbers I'm getting right now are pushing $14K for a two bedroom system. That's more than the cost of the 4.25 acres of land.....
There has to be a way around this county yahoo. Somebody help me find it!