NEW YORK: TIOGA COUNTY PLANNING DEPARTMENT Septic Systems GIS Pilot Project for Small Towns - Town and Village of Candor Background Location: The Town and Village of Candor are in Tioga County, one of the "southern tier" counties of New York that border on Pennsylvania. The county is in the Upper Susquehanna Watershed, the Susquehanna River running east-west across the lower third of the county. The Town of Candor has a population of 5,317, of which 855 people live in the centrally-located Village. Water Supply: Village residents (and some town residents) are served by two high-yield public water supply wells screened in an unconfined aquifer. Source Water Assessment: The New York State Department of Health completed a source water assessment of the village water supply, which noted that the wells were susceptible to contamination by pathogens and nitrates. Neither village nor town are sewered, and residents use septic systems. Priority Contamination Threats Pathogens and nitrates from septic threats are the priority potential contamination threats to the water supplies. Local Team and Developing the Protection Plan Tioga County Planning Department developed this pilot project to test a potential mechanism for updating source water assessments. Management Measures The purpose of the project was to merge environmentally significant data with Candor's real property database in a geographic information system (GIS). The real property database is updated annually. The relevant portion of the county's digitized tax map was loaded into a personal data assistant (PDA) that was connected to a geographical positioning system (GPS) unit. Individual residences were visited by representatives of the planning department and were interviewed about the status and history of their septic system. The GPS unit located the septic system within the appropriate tax-map parcel and the PDA recorded its location. Septic system information collected from the homeowner was also entered into the PDA. Contingency Planning Office of Water (4606M) 816F10034 January 2010 ------- All New York public water systems serving above 3300 people must currently have emergency response plans that can be used if there are source or distribution contamination issues. These include alternate sources, interconnections with other public water systems, use of bottled water, use of water from certified bulk haulers that is guaranteed to meet drinking water standards, and in some cases, additional treatment is available. In addition, there are requirements for all public water systems that suffer broken water mains or find contamination to notify their customers, and to boil water before use if appropriate. Some water systems have additional contingency plans. Evaluating Program Results Information was successfully collected from close to 100 residences in both the Town and Village of Candor, and excellent GIS maps were obtained with color coding distinguishing, for example, septic systems that were problem-free from those with recurring problems. A number of hardware and software problems were encountered and successfully overcome; in addition, there were problems of access to the homeowners. These problems were discussed in the report, which will serve as a very useful guide for parties planning similar projects. For further information, contact: Elaine Jardine County Planning Director Tioga County Department of Economic Development and Planning iardinee@co.tioqa.ny.us Office of Water (4606M) 816F10034 January 2010 ------- |