An ordinance change approved by the Mower County Board last week could be a cure for other ailing septic systems, said a rural apartment building owner that sought the amendment.

“Some of these other problem areas around the county … the Type IV system might help,” said Jason Korfhage, president of Dune Acquisitions, which owns  City Limits  Apartments.

His company asked to have the county’s subsurface sewage treatment system ordinance changed to allow the Type IV system, which uses a certain kind of pretreatment unit. It would be a long-term fix for what has been a longstanding problem with the apartment building’s traditional mound septic system.

The issue with the 20-unit apartment complex in Lansing Township is that its traditional system has never worked well and it is now failing, Korfhage said. Dune Acquisitions wants to replace it with a Type IV system that will send cleaner water into the mound drainfield. That will eliminate clogs and other problems,  such as sewage on the ground, he said.

The Type IV system will cost the business significantly more than replacing what is there, Korfhage said.

The County Board held a public hearing Thursday on the request. No other members of the general public spoke for or against the change.

Commissioner Jerry Reinartz asked why the Type IV was prohibited in the first place.

The county’s Planning Commission reviewed the history and the request, eventually recommending the ordinance change. According to its meeting minutes for Nov. 28, the lack of county staff to properly monitor Type IV systems was a major reason.

Angela M. Lipelt, the county’s environmental services supervisor, explained the concerns to the Planning Commission and in the end said in certain cases  a Type IV system can be an asset to allow, but only when no other option really exists.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency allows Type IV systems.

The minutes also state that Lipelt explained “that this area had been part of multi-year study to determine what options were available to roughly 25 landowners for fixing their failing systems.” Citizens were split over solutions “so the final decision was to leave each landowner responsible for their own.”

Commissioner Mike Ankeny said there was also concern that allowing this type of system would be opening a can of worms; that it would lead to smaller property owners to seek to put these in. Ankeny said these are expensive systems. “So I don’t think the average person is going to do it.”