C.R.I.S.I.S – ACW

Citizens Resisting Invasive Septic Inspection Standards in ACW Township

A Message to All Citizens

The Township of Ashfield Colborne Wawanosh (ACW) Building department in charge of designing and executing mandatory septic inspections for all property owners in ACW has been inconsistently and unfairly applying ill-defined policies and procedures with a “learn as we go” strategy.

This haphazard roll-out means property owners have been confused about what to expect and how to comply.

The Critique

As taxpaying citizens we have the right to critique and provide feedback to our representatives.

With every phase of development the messaging, and parameters for implementation have changed with a ‘learn as we go’ approach. However, there’s been no need to re-invent the wheel. Dozens of other municipalities have worked through the same process. They additionally could have spent time with a modest focus group to learn where misunderstandings and pain points might be before rolling the program out to the community.

According to the architect of the program, Joy Lindsay, it is citizens responsibility to educate themselves regarding the terminology they’ve used in their communications and to seek out and monitor changes in the program.

Here’s a list of common issues that folks have come across.

Using the terms ‘septic systems’ and ‘septic tanks’ interchangeably thus giving the impression that only traditional septic tanks with leaching beds were being inspected. While there may have been more information on their website, why would one look for it if they think the inspections do not apply to them?

Since they never did explicitly provide a definition of ‘septic system’ in their initial communications about the program, people with holding tanks, grey water systems, composting toilets, and outhouses assumed they were exempt.