Septic-tank failures caused roughly forty percent of waterborne disease outbreaks

Evidence

Throughout the 1970s, researchers found additional evidence about the harmful impact of septic tanks on public health. By increasing the levels of nitrates in suburban drinking water, septic tanks increased the threat to infants from blue-baby syndrome. The syndrome itself was not new: In the late 1950s, a sizable body of research on the problem already existed, but researchers had focused on the threat in farm areas, where nitrate-rich manure could contaminate wells. The new research made clear that blue-baby syndrome had become a problem in suburbia too. The pollution of both ground and surface water by septic-tank effluent also caused countless cases of infectious hepatitis, typhoid fever, dysentery, and gastrointestinal illness. According to a number of estimates, septic-tank failure caused roughly 40 percent of all outbreaks of waterborne diseases from 1945 to 1980. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 431

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Septic-tank regulation was hard because the technology served growth and homeownership — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 441; Failing septic tanks forced billions in federal sewer subsidies — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 373; Septic systems fail from complex site-specific ecological conditions — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 378 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Groundwater pollution fears nationalized septic-tank regulation after 1960 #corroborates (0.80) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 406