Working for the developer CRAMA, LLC, along with the subdivision designer CFS Engineering, site surveyor Precision Land Surveying, and Attorney Douglas Resnick, Provencher Engineering secured a Nitrogen Aggregation permit BRPWP58a from the DEP for seven new high-end single-family residential dwellings. The project was an open space subdivision, and included two common driveways, each serving two lots. Smaller than normal lots were created, and open space conservation land was reserved in perpetuity. Several homes included only 30,000 square-foot lots, and each lot included its own well and Title 5 septic system, rendering the subdivision a Nitrogen Sensitive Area.
Six of the seven homes were / will be designed with 5-bedroom dwellings (550 GPD), which exceed allowable nitrogen sensitive effluent loading requirements of one bedroom per 10,000 square feet, thereby requiring a nitrogen aggregation plan. The aggregation plan allows the open space conservation land to be calculated (aggregated) into the overall land area, so that the site as a whole, meets required effluent loading requirements. A credit land restriction, protective covenant, and easement plan was coordinated by us with the surveyor and attorney, and was approved by DEP and the Board of Health, including several Board meetings.
We conducted all of the witnessed soil evaluations with the Board of Health, and recorded seasonal high water table from soil mottles observed in the test pits. Preliminary designs for three to four bedrooms were initially conducted for each lot in order to properly establish lot lines and grading easements for all lots in the subdivision. After the subdivision was approved, the septic designs were subsequently refined to four and five bedrooms, based on supplemental soil evaluations as needed for a few of the lots. Currently, three of the seven homes are built, and four septic systems have been designed by us, and permitted by the Board of Health.
We also provided construction administration including the required inspections (bottom of excavation, after system installation but prior to backfill, and after final grading), as well as preparing as-built plans and construction certifications required for a certificate of compliance from the Board of Health prior to each individual real estate closing.
Our specialty septic designs, such as these, consider far more than just the septic systems. In fact, the septic system is only a part of the overall lot site design. Additional consideration is provided for minimizing impacts from runoff from precipitation and from snow melt, recharging roof gutters back into the ground, optimizing driveway grading approaches and turn-outs, visual presentation of the front yard grades, appropriate use of backyard walk-outs, proposed swimming pools, and house orientation for religious purposes, where desired by the future homeowners.
