CRAWFORD COUNTY - In 2018, Crawford County began their POWTS Maintenance Program.  POWTS stands for Private On-site Wastewater Treatment System, which essentially means a septic system serving a non-sewered property.  The State of Wisconsin requires that all POWTS comply with State standards.  Each county has been tasked with implementing the program.  This department has always been responsible for permitting any new, modified, or replaced POWTS in the county.  There are approximately 3,600 POWTS in Crawford County.

The purpose of the new maintenance program is to ensure proper system operation, increase system lifespan, and ensure wastewater is being properly treated before returning to the groundwater and thus protecting our drinking water.  Most people are already on a maintenance schedule to pump the system every 2-3 years. Crawford County will now simply be requiring pumpers to certify system functionality.  Crawford County must receive an inspection form from a pumper, plumber, or inspector for each system at least once every three years.  As long as your system is pumped/ inspected by 2021 and a report is submitted, you will be on schedule with the program.      **At this time, there is no immediate need to call your septic pumper.

To offset administration costs of this State-mandated program, Crawford County will be charging POWTS owners an annual fee of $7.00/ system. For convenience, Crawford County decided to collect this fee as an assessment on the property taxes. Significant effort went in to identifying which parcels contained POWTS to ensure the assessment was only applied to the correct parcels.

All parcels that were linked to an existing septic permit were assessed the charge.  Any other non-sewered parcel that had a site address matching a mailing address, which typically indicates a residence, received the assessment.  Finally, any other parcel that had an improvement of over $25,000 was assessed the charge.  While the Land Conservation, Planning, and Zoning Department put a lot of effort into only charging appropriate parcels, there may be some parcels that received incorrect assessments.  A simple phone call to Zoning/ Sanitation Technician Jake Shedivy at 608-326-0294 can correct any errors.

If you have any other questions on the POWTS Maintenance Program, please contact Jake Shedivy at 608-326-0294.