Sec. 2. Rules. Resolved: That the Department of Human Services, Division of Health Engineering shall adopt rules that upgrade on- site peat sewage treatment systems from experimental status to general use status and that establish clear guidelines for installing those systems. Those guidelines must be separate and distinct from any technical design standards and must be written so as to be easily understood by sewage disposal system installers. Rules adopted under this section are major substantive rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter II. These rules must be provisionally adopted and submitted to the Legislature no later than January 31, 2000.

SUMMARY

This resolve directs the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Human Services to identify jointly all on-site peat sewage disposal systems installed since October 1, 1988 that have failed or are currently malfunctioning due to improper installation. The resolve further directs the Department of Environmental Protection to reimburse the homeowners from within its existing budgeted resources for all costs associated with fixing or replacing the malfunctioning system.

The resolve also directs the Department of Human Services, Division of Health Engineering to provisionally adopt major substantive rules by January 31, 2000 that upgrade those systems from experimental to general use status and that establish clear guidelines for installing such systems.