Keywords:Sewage Disposal Regulation Schedule 2, s. 18(d); absorption field; cistern; well; domestic water supply; award of costs.
Mr. Clarke appealed the decision of the Environmental Health Officer to refuse to issue a permit for a sewage disposal system for a waterfront property near Campbell River, B.C. The EHO found that a cistern located on a neighbouring property also functioned as a well and as a source of domestic water, and that the proposed site of the absorption field for the Appellant’s property was, at a distance of 50 feet, too close to the cistern. The Appellant submitted that the 100-foot minimum distance required by the Regulation should not have applied. He argued that the cistern was not a well or a “source of domestic water” itself, but rather a reservoir for water from the true source, a creek located about 300 feet from the proposed absorption field.
The Board found that the cistern did operate like a shallow well in that water infiltrated from the sub-surface into the cistern. The fact that the “primary” source of water may have been the creek did not detract from the fact that water was also entering the cistern from the sub-surface and that it provided water when the creek was dry in the summer. There was therefore a real concern that effluent from a septic field at the proposed location could contaminate the water in the cistern and thereby have a negative impact on public health. The appeal was dismissed.
