Legislation adding regulations for private wastewater systems is headed to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk, despite multiple lawmakers’ failed attempts to exempt their counties from the bill.
Sen. Mark Pody, a Lebanon Republican, brought the bill after faulty decentralized wastewater systems in Wilson County allowed pools of polluted wastewater to form near residential homes.
Decentralized systems are often installed in rural areas that lack existing sewer infrastructure. The systems include drip dispersal systems, which filter sewage and then disperse it over large “drip fields” to further filter the wastewater through the soil. The systems are most common in Middle Tennessee and in East Tennessee counties around Knoxville.
But the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation found in 2024 that more than half of those systems did not comply with their permits. Drip systems often overloaded soil with wastewater and led wastewater to run off into nearby land and waterways, according to the department’s report.
Utility organizations have been responsible for approving system plans, overseeing and signing off on construction, and operating the systems or hiring outside operators, Pody said Monday.