DECENTRALIZED WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT PLANNING: USE OF LOT-BY-LOT ANALYSIS TO DEVELOP COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT PLANS

Decentralized wastewater management provides significant environmental and economic opportunities to many growing communities. Frequently, the existing wastewater infrastructure of on-site septic systems can be an attractive, sustainable, long-term solution for most areas of a community. However, the necessary planning process poses a multidisciplinary array of challenges that can deter communities from embarking down this path or derail their planning efforts. The advent in recent years of computerized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and the increasing availability of GIS information has made a highly detailed, lot-bylot decentralized planning approach an economically viable and attractive option to many communities. The analytical framework discussed herein provides a robust development and implementation strategy that maximizes the potential for a successful decentralized management plan. This framework provides community officials with a very powerful wastewater planning and management tool that has received overwhelming community validation and approval.This lot-by-lot analytical framework coupled with GIS technology enables communities to reap both the short and long term benefits offered by decentralized wastewater management to a degree that was only possible with manual technologies in the past.