Westchester, Explained 04: Septic Systems & Water Quality

As an extension of our weekly "This Week in Westchester - The Podcast" we welcome you to Westchester, Explained. In this special long-form series we take you deeper into the headlines, decisions and policies shaping Westchester County and their impact on your family, your neighborhood and your future. Here we slow it down, dig in and bring in the people doing the work, and we explain not just what the County is doing, but why it matters.

Because government should be clear. This is your County. 

And this is Westchester, Explained. 

Today, we're focusing on Westchester's septic systems and water quality.

Joining for this in-depth conversation is Planning & Water Quality Coordinator Millie Magraw from the Westchester County Department of Planning -- who will discuss her work, while helping to clarify the newly launched $3.5 Million program to lower costs for septic repairs and protecting our drinking water that's part of the NYC watershed -- and why that matters.

Let's dive in.

---

Do you have feedback or a suggestion for a future podcast topic? Please let us know by emailing communications@westchestercountyny.gov and include Podcast in the subject line.

For the latest news & updates visit the Westchester County Newsroom or follow us on social:  Instagram  |  Facebook  |  X (Twitter)  |  LinkedIn  |  YouTube

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hi Westchester. I'm Westchester County Government Communications Director Catherine Chaffee. As an extension of This Week in Westchester, the podcast, we welcome you to Westchester Explained. Here we'll take you deeper into the headlines inside the decisions shaping Westchester County and the policies that impact your family, your neighborhood, and your future. Here we will slow it down, dig in, and bring in the people doing the work, and we'll explain not just what the county is doing, but why it matters. Because government should be clear. This is your county, and this is Westchester explained. I'm sitting here today with Planning and Water Quality Coordinator Millie McGraw to talk about septic systems and water. Let's begin. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. So excited to talk about water.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

I am to, it warms the caudals of my heart doing this program. It's what government is all about, helping people, and it's really wonderful to have a county executive that likes this type of program and um promotes it.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Okay, so let's talk about the program. So Westchester County has a new program that we are promoting to help protect drinking water while reducing costs for property owners. So it's a program um to repair septic septic systems and connect homes that don't have connections to sewer lines to connect them to sewer lines. So first let's break it down. What's a septic system? Not everybody knows. Not everybody has the privilege to know.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Um a septic system is for those individuals who are not on a sewer line and it is a place for their effluent. So once they flush the toilet, that is the effluent, and it's a place for it to go, and it goes into a septic tank, and the solids sink to the bottom of the septic tank, and then the link the liquids over time go out into what's called a leech field. And while they're in that leech field, which is sort of underground in the yard, they get cleaned and in and filtrated through natural methodologies. Um and then every, depending upon your usage, every one or two years, uh sometimes longer, but should be every one to two years, um, a septicolar comes and pumps out your septic tank. Yes. And and so that's a very critical component of it.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Absolutely. Absolutely. So the septic system, again, for those people maybe in the southern part of the county that don't have this and are able to live with this, it is very far below ground. And there's a lot of things that impact your septic system, like uh the weather, um, your soap, what you're flushing down the toilet. Lot lots of things.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yeah. So you really you don't want to flush things down the toilet that don't belong in the toilet. Um, and you don't want to drive over your septic where your septic tank is located or your leech fields, um, because those can cause damage to it. Uh and if you cause damage to it, it can be kind of nasty.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yeah. So say the least, right? Yes. Topic for this podcast. How do you know while they're listening to this? But yes, it can cause damage and it could create a lot of problems.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Oh, oh, that means for some people it go it gets backed up into their homes. So that's really nasty.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yes, yes. Um, I'm having a little uh PTSD because I am the proud owner of a septic system. Um, but anyway, the the problem is as you as you you are yes, here we are. All right, we're both having this septic system therapy session. So um, so you have a septic system in your home, in your yard, below ground. And then for people who also have wells, how does this become a problem? Well, first actually, let's start a meeting. What's a well for the people who don't have wells? How does that work?

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Um, so a well is a very, very deep hole in the ground that that raws up the naturally occurring water from underwater underground rivers and streams and aquifers. And many homes in northern Westchester rely on well water for their water. Hopefully they get their water tested pretty regularly. And certainly, if your septic system is failing, that's gonna impact the quality of your well water.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Because everything's gonna mix together. Yeah, yes. Okay. So the so the talk to me about the the goal of this program.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

So um the goal of this, so this program, just to back up a little bit, is fully funded by um New York City, uh Department of Environmental Protection. Uh, because New York City gets some of their water from uh what we call the east of Hudson watershed, so that's Westchester County and parts of Putnam and a little bit of Dutchess, too. Um and they get about 10% of their water from the east of Hudson, and Westchester County residents get about 80, about 80% of the Westchester County residents get their water also from the New York City watershed. Um so what this program does is it takes those septic systems that are failing, and the properties of those systems must be within the New York City watershed. And then within the county, we will pay for those systems to be repaired, replaced, repaired, what whatever. And for those individuals also within the New York City watershed who have a failing system and whose homes are on sewer lines, we will also pay for them to be connected to a sewer line, providing the sewer line is within 100 feet of their property.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

So let's talk a little bit about where that area is that falls into this New York City watershed. Where exactly is that in Westchester County?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Okay. So it's in 12 municipalities. And so that I don't have to use my fingers. I'm just gonna read them aloud. Read them to us in alphabetical order. So there are a few municipalities that only have a small percentage of their land within the New York City watershed, and I'll note those as I read them. So Harrison, and they only have 7%, Mount Pleasant with 13%, Newcastle has 65%, North Castle has 29%, Bedford has a lot, Portland only has 17%, um, Lewisboro has a large amount, Mount Kisco has a large amount, North Salem has a large amount of their property, as does Pound Ridge, Filmers, and Yorktown.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Okay, so so homes in these communities that are on septic are part of this program.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

They are, providing that their system is failing. There are a couple other caveats, which I can get into now or later, depending upon Tell us, yeah. So the uh so in addition to being in the New York City watershed, your system has to be failing, and the size of your septic tank cannot exceed 1,250 gallon capacity.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

I'll be honest with you, I don't know if that big is that big? It's pretty big. It supports a four-bedroom house. So it's I need I need to learn more about my septic system. I don't, I don't, I didn't know that. So okay, so you do that's some of the anything else?

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Not really. I mean, there are other little caveats that might come up, but it they really vary from property from property owner to property owner.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Have we ever seen um a situation where the septic system was leaking to the point that it was impacting water? I mean, have have you seen this happen?

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Yeah, so in some of the areas in northern Westchester where the homes are on steep slopes and it goes down to um a lake, uh those lakes are pretty impaired. And those lakes go, you know, feed right into Pensico River and into the reservoir, which where we store our water, our drinking water. Um, but those lakes are pretty impaired with phosphorus when algae b algae blooms, and that is a direct result of a few things, it's one of which is fertilizer, but the other of which is failing septic systems.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

This is really fascinating because on a personal note, I live in one of those municipalities in a lake community, and I have a septic system. So it's it's perfect storm. And I will tell you that when we bought our house, which was a very long time ago at this point, it had a failing septic system. They the previous this program didn't exist, and the previous owners just had to replace the entire system, but it did, in fact, right.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

We we would have benefited from it. You would you would have benefited from it. And there are a lot of people out there who are benef will be benefiting from this program.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

And it's great because it is an expensive undertaking.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Oh my goodness. I mean, it's it's a simple repair or replacement of a tank, it can be like$10,000. But I know of people who are spending close to$100,000. I mean,$100,000.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

It's you know, no one has that line around. And I mean, it's a lot of money. I mean, you say, my goodness,$100,000. But this is really all about protecting drinking water. It is. And and for those of us in Westchester that are drinking this water for New York City that's drinking this water, you know, the most precious resource, would you say?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah. Yeah. And for those who aren't drinking it, they're probably on well, the on wells. And so it's effective it's helping them too. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um Gohan, sorry. No, I was just gonna reiterate what you just said. Water is probably our most press precious resource.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

And so in your role as a water quality coordinator, what kind of work do you do around this?

SPEAKER_00 10:28

So, I mean, you know, I helped develop the program al along with my commissioner, Blanca Lopez. Uh, we developed this program. It's a pretty thorough application process. There are a bunch of documents that the property owners will need to upload onto the application. And so then I work with the property owners and I will be working with the engineer. So the way that the program works is the property owner will fill out the application. They're going to have to upload a bunch of information onto it, as I mentioned, things like a copy of their deed, um, their identification, you know, like a copy of their driver's license, a land survey if they have it, um, a certificate of occupancy if they have it, uh, documentation saying that their system is failing, as that is, you know, one of the requirements. And if they have a mortgage, their most recent statement and their homeowner's insurance policy. So they'll have to, and we give instructions on the actual application as to how to upload that information. And if they have problems, um, they can always reach out to me. That's on the application as well. It seems like a very straightforward process. It is a pretty straightforward process. Once we have the application, um, the other thing that they need to do is they need to send me, send the Department of Planning a check for$575, and that is so that we can do a title search. And once the title search checks out, then we contract uh the engineering firm that we've contr contracted with, and they will come in and do a site assessment and do a design of the situation. This may involve, you know, because the septic tank is underground and the leech fields are there, it may involve, you know, digging some holes in your yard to figure out exactly what's going on. Um, so then the engineer will do the design, and the design has to go through a may have to go through an approval prop process with the county department of health. Once they approve it, um we then uh submit a uh request for proposal to contractors, and we choose one. We will then sign what's called a tri-party agreement between the contractor, the property owner, and the county. And then the contractor will begin the work, and this will enable the county to pay the contractor directly so that the homeowner, other than the$575 check for the title search, does not lay out a penny.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

What a tremendous service.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Oh, it really is.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

And so similarly, if they have the failing septic system, but they are also near a sewer line, how does that change the process or does it?

SPEAKER_00 13:23

It doesn't really. The the engineer will have m less to do. Um, it will still have to get approval, and then we will contract directly with the contractor who will come in and do the connection.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

And why aren't some of these homes already connected?

SPEAKER_00 13:39

So for some of them, uh it's an outlay of money. Like to connect to a sewer line can be relatively inexpensive if the line in if your property is flat and it's like an easy connection. But other times it can, again, it can be very expensive. It maybe isn't as expensive as some of the more expensive septic repair and replacements, but it didn't cost the$70,000 in connect is and so people, as much as they would like to be connected, because it's so much easier, they just don't have that kind of pasturing around.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

And how would they know? I know one of the things that you made from them is documentation that the septic system is failing. How would they know?

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Well, sometimes they just know because it gets nasty.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Um and other times, uh, but mostly we do need evidence of it. And so mostly when the septic collar comes, they can tell you.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Okay. And what are the reasons that it would fail? They would just get old?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

I mean, sometimes it gets old, but but there are septic systems that are 50 years old that are in perfect condition. Um, so sometimes it's because they haven't been pumped out regularly, and there's this kind of like this overflow, and that can cause damage. Um, sometimes it's because of overuse. Like maybe the septic system was built to support three bedroom a three-bedroom house, but you know, there's more, yeah. Ma and dad have moved in, there are too many people living in home. There are too many people living in the home and and it just gets overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

But well, a lot of it is like just not sort of regularly maintaining it. You know, like if the septic caller comes and empties it and says, like, you have a crack or that distribution box doesn't look so good. You you gotta maintain it.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah, fair now. Um, you know, it's we were talking about this before. We don't there's no way to really know what percentage of the county is on septic. You don't have it like an exact number.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

We don't have an exact number. We're working on it, but we don't have an exact number. That means we think they're about 27,000. But there are some in southern Westchester as well. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Oh, I didn't realize that.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

I meant someone recently told me that I believe it was don't remember if it I think it was the town of Mamarinac, they're not the village, just the town, which includes Larchmont, had 81 septic systems.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

I'm surprised to hear that. Yeah, I was surprised to hear it too. Wow. It's um it's it's funny because, you know, as um it seems like such a Westchester thing to talk about, right? So talk about like your septic system, and and that's why we started this off by even explaining what it is, because some people, you know, flush and they don't know what happens. And and bless them.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

And and certainly like during some of the early stages of COVID, there were a lot of people from Brooklyn moving up to Westchester, and they'd never heard of the septic system before.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Yeah, surprise, right? Welcome to Westchester. Well, this is really, really helpful and really great. And and I appreciate you taking the time to explain.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Oh my goodness. I like this has been my baby. I'm so happy that it's launching and that we're able to help all of these property owners. It's really, yeah, I would take the time a thousand times over again to talk about this program.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

And what I, you know, what I want to just sort of close on talking about is, you know, we're joke and we say, oh, accepted systems are such a Westchester problem, Westchester topic. But all of us here in the Westchester are are also, I think, very aware of the fact that, you know, we have Kensco Dam, we have Kensco Reservoir, we have these reservoirs, they serve us, they serve this city, and we're so lucky that we have this amazing water water that we all get to drink.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Do you wanna, I mean, do you do you think people realize? Do we I think we realize. Do you think we realize?

SPEAKER_00 17:43

I don't know. I mean, I didn't grow up here, and I knew from where I grew up that New York City water quality was drinking water quality was one of the best in the country, if not the best. So I hope that people still know that. I mean, it is um it is an amazing infrastructure.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

It is.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

I mean, all of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Yeah. Yeah. And and New York City does an amazing job making sure that it is high quality water. And we are all so lucky that it's drink it and drink it.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Well, I um have my glass of water right here on the table and seems appropriate as we absolutely this. Anything else you want to share with us?

SPEAKER_00 18:27

So I will say then the way to access is this the information is on the West on the Westchester County Department of Planning website, as well as the Department of Health website.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

So for those of you listening who are wondering where are these departments located, first of all, you can just Google it, right? Yes.gov. And on the main page, there's a search for you can search for this program. But we are easy to find, you are easy to find, and we want to help people. And you're here.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

You're here to help. I'm I'm here to help. And actually, you may be even able to Google Westchester County Department of Planning septic system. I'm sure you can. Yes. And the application should pop up. There should be a link to it right there.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yes. Yes. Well, this is terrific. And and again, thank you for joining. And last uh but not least, is there a phone number for the Department of Planning you want to share?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yes, 914-995-4100. And my name again is Millie McGraw. And you can just ask for me, and I'd be happy to talk to anyone and uh send you an application and start this process.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Okay, perfect. Well, it's all it's on all of us to protect our drinking water. Thank you, Millie, for joining us. And we'll talk again soon.