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Septic System Management Program <br />August 24, 1990 <br />Page 6 of 16 <br />2. Regular existing system inspections have been sporadic <br />and inconsistent from year to year. It takes 3-4 weeks of <br />the typical 12 week inspection season for the temporary <br />college students who have been hired to get "up to speed <br />With a new person each year, the annual inspection process <br />barely gets started before it ends. The summer interns <br />certainly can't become septic experts in the short time <br />available, hence the quality and consistency of verbal <br />information given to homeowners is lacking. Availability of <br />full time staff to train new interns is also limited, since <br />the beginning of the inspection season (June) coincides with <br />the normal peak of the construction season. <br />3. Due to the need for tactful homeowner contact throughout <br />the entire system repair process when such work is needed, <br />summer inspectors have not been asked to do the foZ lov-up <br />work for needed repairs. Homeowners expect to deal w^th a <br />knowledgeable staff person who can provide consistent and <br />reliable answers throughout the repair process. As a <br />result, many repairs have not been followed up because no <br />individual full time staff person has had the time available <br />to do so. <br />Currently, Orono has a number of systems which were found to <br />be failing as long ago as 1984, but which have never been <br />followed up. With neither the homeowner anxious to spend <br />significant amounts of money nor the neighbors making any <br />complaints, such follow-ups must ultimately rely on staff <br />members to push for any repair activity to occur. <br />4. There is a disparity between the kind of protection that <br />residents expect based upon the tenets of the septic <br />ordinance and the actual ability of a limited staff to <br />provide the degree of service expected; <br />( ;