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Rural residents of Lake County with failing septic systems can now apply for a 3%-or-less loan to be administered by the county, according to Environmental Specialist Mackenzie Hogfeldt.
Joining St. Louis and other counties that offer low-interest loans to property owners for well or septic upgrades, the county is working through Agribank, a national back with experience in similar agricultural loans. (Local banks were first offered this program; all declined.)
Hogfeldt is hopeful that the $200,000 allocated to the county this year will get the ball rolling and demonstrate the need, so that more funding will be available next year.
Many septic systems in the county are not up code, either because of leaks or cracks in tanks or because trench systems are not properly filtering the wastewater, raising the possibility that residents and their neighbors are subject to contaminated drinking water.
Property owners currently have to qualify conventionally for these loans, but Hogfeldt is working with the county to see if this process can be circumvented, since the county has a clear interest in the upgraded septic, and property owners with failing systems are required to upgrade them.
The price tag on a new septic is high and getting higher, according to Hogfeldt, who recently administered a loan for $36,000.
Even people who could get a conventional loan, he thinks, should be able to apply for a loan with a sliding- scale interest rate.
An upgraded septic system, after all, significantly adds to the value of the property.
