Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.

If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

Abstract.

Research is important for progress in onsite wastewater industry, however, funding a strong research program is quite challenging. In late 1980s and early 1990s Texas State legislators debated and passed a law that required the state regulatory agency to award competitive grants and support applied research and demonstration projects regarding on-site wastewater treatment technology and systems for improving the quality of wastewater treatment and reducing the cost of providing wastewater treatment to consumers. The law was famously called the $10 research fee law which allowed the environmentally agency to fund research and demonstration projects for two decades, from 1992 to 2012. In Texas, onsite wastewater systems are defined as systems for the disposal of domestic sewage, excluding liquid waste resulting from the processes used in industrial and commercial establishments that is located on the site where the sewage is produced; and produces not more than 5,000 gallons of waste a day. Texas has a sunset policy that requires each law to be renewed after 20 years or if not renewed the law is sunset, i.e., abolished. The $10 research fee law was not in 2013and research funding stopped. But the state continued to collect the $10 fee from the local permitting entity and used the funds to support other activities unrelated to onsite wastewater. By 2013 Texas had a strong industry association called TOWA that got involved with the efforts to renew the research funding by lobbying state legislators and working with state academic institutions like Texas A&M , Baylor, Texas Tech, and a few others who had been funded during the 1992 to 2012 period. With the help from public and private entities, House Bill 2771 was proposed and passed in the 85^th Legislative Session that renewed the requirement for the state regulatory agency to award competitive grants and support applied research and demonstration projects regarding on-site wastewater treatment technology and systems for improving the quality of wastewater treatment and reducing the cost of providing wastewater treatment to consumers. In this paper we will discuss the details of permitting program in Texas, how the $10 permit fee is collected and used to fund research and demonstration programs in Texas, and the progress made in this area since the renewal of the law in 2017. The audience discussion related to similar programs in their home-states will be part of the presentation in this session.