Todd Apfel, Tama County’s Environmental Health Officer/Sanitarian from April 2014 to April 2021, pictured in his Toledo office back in 2014. TAMA-GRUNDY PUBLISHING FILE PHOTO

TOLEDO – The Tama County Board of Health recently found itself in a bit of a mess as it relates to septic transfers, and come July 1 will be on the hook for almost $13,000 in an effort to clean it up.

During the board’s March meeting held over Zoom, two separate payments were approved as a result of improperly passed septics by the county’s previous Environmental Health Officer/Sanitarian, Todd Apfel, who held the position from April 2014 to April 2021.

Under the Sanitarian Subcommittee report, it was reported that two different homeowners in Tama County – Robert Boley, who purchased a home on C Avenue near Union Grove Lake, and Ashley (Stevens) Denbow, who bought and sold a home near Gladbrook – experienced problems dating back to 2018 with septics that had erroneously passed following Time of Transfer (ToT) inspections submitted to Apfel.

According to the Iowa DNR’s website, Iowa’s ToT septic system inspection law “requires that every home or building served by a septic system have that septic system inspected prior to the sale or deed transfer of the home or building. All inspections must be conducted by an inspector that has been certified by the Iowa DNR. The purpose of the law is to eliminate substandard or polluting septic systems.”

Both issues came to light under the current sanitarian Chris Behrens, who started in the role in May of 2021 following Apfel’s resignation.

Tama County Sanitarian Chris Behrens, right, pictured at a new home site in rural Tama County in late November of last year as he looks over a soil analysis report with a contractor from Hardon’s, Inc. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Apfel is currently the Environmental Health Officer and Zoning Administrator for Marshall County as well as the Zoning Administrator for Tama County. He recently announced his retirement from both counties, effective sometime around July 4.

The Boley case involves what was supposedly a code-conforming septic for which a ToT was approved with no flags noted by Apfel during the home’s sale to Boley. The septic was believed to have been new and code-conforming, however, it was neither.

Boley’s septic was both too small, Behrens said – it should have been a 1,500-gallon tank – and too close to the well – within 15 feet.

The estimate to fix the issue came in at $10,400, Behrens said.

The Stevens case involved two separate sales. The home was first sold to Stevens with a supposedly code-conforming system despite the ToT showing the septic was in fact not conforming at 400 gallons – everything under 500 gallons in Iowa automatically fails – while also having a brick tank that had caved in, Behrens said.

When Stevens tried to sell the house two years later, Behrens flagged the inspection report and told her it needed to be brought up to code under Chapter 69.

Had she known of the issue at the time of her original purchase, Stevens told Behrens, she would have made an adjustment in her purchase price.

“It was an obvious failure,” Behrens said of the Stevens case.

The estimate to replace her septic came in at $15,400.

During the March meeting, the board briefly discussed developing a formula as part of a blanket policy for homeowners with septics that were passed incorrectly by the county sanitarian and brought to light within the last two years. In such cases, the subcommittee proposed a reimbursement rate of $7,500 per septic or 50% of the cost to bring the system up to code — whichever is less.

As of publication, the board has not taken action on such a policy, according to Behrens.

But the board did approve payments in March to both Boley and Stevens, electing to reimburse Boley at 50% of the cost – $5,200 – and Stevens at $7,500.

“People are moving into Tama County and buying houses …. We need to do something,” board member Casey Schmidt said.

“I believe that would be a good start,” Tama Co. Supervisor Curt Hilmer said in reference to the Boley and Stevens payouts.

The two payouts are set to be distributed after July 1, when the next fiscal year’s budget goes into effect. As part of the Tama Co. Board of Health’s new budget, $30,000 was earmarked toward such payments.

During the meeting, Behrens indicated there were possibly at least four more such cases coming down the pike that he had discovered since taking on the sanitarian role.

In a follow-up interview with Tama-Grundy Publishing, Behrens said by his own estimation the most important lesson in all this is that the ToT report must be read and Chapter 69 adhered to accordingly for the sake of all those involved in real estate transfers in the county — as well as for the health of Tama County’s waterways in general.

“I wouldn’t say I’m being picky,” Behrens said when asked for comment on the increased scrutiny septic permitting has been receiving since he took on the role of sanitarian.

“Anytime a property or septic system changes hands or title – not necessarily a new system, it could be brand new or 50 years old – the time of transfer [ToT] gives the sanitarian a report, and they need to decide if there needs to be a modification based on Chapter 69. … Previously [some septics in Tama County] were allowed to transfer and they shouldn’t have, so now they are being flagged on the second sale.”

More information on Chapter 69 can be found on Tama County’s Environmental Health and Sanitarian website: https://www.tamacounty.iowa.gov/environmental/environadministrator.html

Tama-Grundy Publishing did reach out to Todd Apfel by email for comment but had not received a response as this paper went to press.