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TO:
Whom It May Concern
FROM: Southborough Board of Health
RE:
Title 5 Code minimum requirements to help determine
the potential status of lots for possible TAX ABATEMENT
PURPOSES
The
Southborough Board of Health administers the State
Title 5 Code for all sub-surface sewage disposal systems
throughout the Town. Since the Town does not have
a communal sewer system, all sewage is treated on
site (on each property owner’s lot) and ultimately
disposed into the ground. On-Site systems consist
of cesspools, leaching pits, conventional septic tank
and leaching field/trench systems, enhanced treatment
coupled with sand filter, or other approved systems.
Every lot has the potential of having an on-site septic
system as long as certain soil tests and other investigations
are formally and officially conducted to show that
an on-site system will or will not meet the State
Code Title 5 minimum standards. The following procedures
must be rigidly adhered to if the property is to qualify
for any tax abatement application procedures with
the Board of Assessors:
You
must retain the services of a State Licensed and Certified
Soil Evaluator to conduct and depict all soil testing
as required by the State Title 5 Environmental Code.
The Board of Health Agent must formally witness all
soil tests and the lot owner must pay for all witnessing
fees. The lot owner must have all soil test locations
accurately shown on a plot plan drawn to scale. This
plot plan should be drawn by either a Massachusetts
Registered Land Surveyor, Professional Civil Engineer,
Certified Soil Evaluator or other suitably registered
and licensed individual.
The
lot owner must have all wetlands and wetland boundaries
within 100 feet of the lot shown on a plot plan and
certified by the Southborough Conservation Commission.
All Storm water drainage systems must be shown within
100 feet of the lot. Drainage system components might
consist of, but not necessarily be limited to: catch
basins, drain lines, drop inlets, detention basins,
retention basins, siltation basins, headwalls, open
or closed drain channels, and manholes as part of
any drainage system.
If the lot is within the Sudbury Reservoir watershed
all tributaries, ponds, brooks, streams, and other
bodies of water must be shown within 200 feet of the
lot. If the lot is within the Sudbury River watershed,
all tributaries, ponds, brooks, stream, and other
bodies of water must be shown within 50 feet of the
lot.
If ledge or impervious material exist on the lot limiting
any area suitably large enough to allow for the proper
siting of a Title 5 Code Soil Absorption System, such
material must be properly shown and identified. Anything
less than four feet thick “C” Horizon*,
parent pervious material may render the lot unsuitable
for placement of a Soil Absorption System and thus
unbuildable. This information must be properly displayed
on a plot plan.
Upon
receipt of an application, a fee, and a plot plan
indicating that the above mentioned criteria has been
met, the Board of Health will consider the information
at its next regularly scheduled meeting. A determination
will be issued within 21 days after that meeting and
a letter will be sent to the applicant with a copy
to the Southborough Board of Assessors, stating the
Board of Health’s findings.
*The
term “C” Horizon is an International Soil
Scientist/Soil Evaluation term and refers to the soil
strata deposited by the glacier such as sand, gravel,
silt, clay, boulders, and is sometimes referred to
as either “outwash deposit” or “glacial
till”. The “C” Horizon underlies
the “A” Horizon soil or loam, and the
“B: Horizon soil sometimes referred to as the
sub-soil.
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