CHINA — Planning Board members have given up their effort to prepare a revised shoreland septic system compliance ordinance for the June ballot.

That means voters will soon decide whether to keep the current rules or scrap them.

At a public hearing on Tuesday, seven of the 17 audience members criticized the program and one person defended it.

Planning Board Chairman Ronald Breton was still ready to tweak the document and forward it to selectmen next month for the local ballot vote, but he was a minority of one on the six-member board.

Board member Milton Dudley has argued to delay a decision so a consultant can be hired to study the extent of the problem and determine the minimum necessary regulations.

Meanwhile, board member James Wilkens recommended devising a work plan and educating residents, instead adding a question to the June vote. “Take time to do it right,” he said.

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Breton asked if the current draft could be a basis for further revision, but no one was willing to say that it could.

The original shoreland septic system compliance program was approved by China voters in 2009. It called for property owners within 250 feet of China lakes to either prove their septic systems were designed and installed to current standards, or have them inspected by the end of 2014. Systems would be re-inspected at intervals, more frequently for older systems.

Resident Frederic Hayden, one of those who spoke Tuesday evening, collected enough signatures to put a repeal of the ordinance on the June ballot. Hayden says he wanted only to have a public hearing on the current ordinance, but was told by town officials he needed to circulate the petition.

Reluctant to leave septic systems near lakes completely unregulated, selectmen asked the Planning Board to draft a less onerous ordinance as an alternative option for voters instead of an outright repeal.

Objections to the current program, discussed during multiple Planning Board meetings, included the cost of inspections, the possibility that an intrusive inspection would damage a properly-functioning leachfield, and equity questions.

Some people said every septic system in China should be subject to the inspection requirements, because all outflow eventually reaches a lake and to avoid discriminating against shoreland property owners.

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Others said only systems within 100-feet of a lake should be included, because farther away any water outflow would be cleaned up as it passed through soil.

Part or all of the shorelines of six lakes — China Lake, Three Mile Pond, Branch Pond, Mud Pond, Evans Pond and Dutton Pond — is in China.

Planning Board members have also drafted a separate ordinance revision dealing with home occupations. They forwarded it to selectmen with a request that it be put on the June ballot. Selectmen took no action at Monday’s meeting.

Anticipating a favorable response from selectmen, Planning Board members scheduled an April 17 public hearing to present the final version of the home occupations ordinance to voters.

Their regular meeting April 10 will be preceded by a 6 p.m. session to discuss a new approach to the shoreland septic issue.


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