1 15.410:
Variances - Standard of review
(1) Local approving authorities and the Department may vary the application of any provisions of 310 CMR 15.000 with respect to any particular case except those listed in 310 CMR 15.415. Variances shall be granted only when, in the opinion of the approving authority:
(a) The person requesting a variance has established that enforcement of the provision of 310 CMR 15.000 from which a variance is sought would be manifestly unjust, considering all the relevant facts and circumstances of the individual case; and
(b) The person requesting a variance has established that a level of environmental protection that is at least equivalent to that provided under 310 CMR 15.000 can be achieved without strict application of the provision of 310 CMR 15.000 from which a variance is sought. (emphasis added)
2 Two notable organisms
in this regard are Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter that convert
ammonia to nitrate.
3 Section
15.253(1)(a) Effective Depth - pits, galleries, or chambers & 15.251(1)(c)
Effective Depth - Trenches
4
Section 15.221 General Construction Requirements for all System Components
5 Loading Rate refers to
the amount of effluent (gallons) discharged to the soil per given area
of soil interface (in square feet). For example, under the 1978 Title 5,
the loading rate was 2.5 gallons/square foot/day of sidewall leaching area
in sandy soils. This loading rate was reduced to 0.74 gallons/square foot/day
under the revised code.
6 A
system that distributes septic tank effluent passively by gravity as opposed
to a dosed system or pressure-dosed system (SEE MODULE 1)
8 Yates,
Marylynn V., and Scott R. Yates. 1988. Modelling Microbial Fate in the
Subsurface Environment. 1988. CRC Critical Reviews in Environmental
Control. Vol 17(4):307-340.
9
The actual graph contained the negative logarithm of the removal
rate in numbers/centimeter of passage vs. the logarithm of the application
rate in centimeters/day.
10 EPA
Document entitled "Septic Tank Siting to Minimize the Contamination
of Ground Water by Microorganisms" - Office of Ground-Water Protection,
Washington DC 20460.
11
Vaughn, James M., E. Landry, and T.Z. McHarrell. 1983. Entrainment
of Viruses from Septic Tank Leach Fields Through a Shallow, Sandy Soil
Aquifer. Applied and Environmental Microbiology Vol 45(5):1474-1480,
13 Technical
Evaluation of Title 5 The State Environmental Code 310 CMR 15.00 Prepared
by Defeo, Wait & Associates, Inc. March 1991. pages 79-80.
14 The
figure was adapted from Cape Cod and the Islands The Geologic
Story by Robert N. Oldale. 1992. Parnassus Imprints, East Orleans, Massachusetts
15 Section 15.103
(3)(c)2. .....if the location of the system is within 300 feet of mean
high water of the ocean, monitoring the high groundwater elevation over
a tidal cycle during a full moon high tide.
17 Section
15.255: Construction in Fill
18 Section
15.405: Contents of a Local Upgrade Approval (1)i the local approving
authority may reduce the required four foot separation (in soils with a
recorded percolation rate of more than two minutes per inch) or the required
five foot separation (in soils with a recorded percolation rate of two
minutes or less per inch) between the bottom of the soil absorption system
and the high groundwater elevation only if all of the following conditions
are met:...1-4...
......5. No reduction in required leaching field size
or setbacks from public or private wells, bordering vegetated wetlands,
surface waters, salt marshes, coastal banks, certified vernal pools, water
supply lines, surface water supplies or tributaries to surface water supplies,
or drains which discharge to surface water supplies or their tributaries,
is allowed.