A septic tank repair project funded by the Banklick Watershed Council. Photo provided | Banklick Watershed Council

What you need to know

Human waste may be the source of bacterial pollution in Banklick Creek, and a study is looking to find out whether failing septic systems could be the cause.

A joint study between the EPA and the Banklick Watershed Council, a nonprofit focused on conservation efforts for the water system, is investigating the source of contamination after a previous study identified large amounts of human-produced fecal bacteria in the water system.

E.coli levels measured downstream of the study area had about 60 times what would be considered polluted according to water quality regulations, said Nicole Clements, the Banklick Watershed Council Coordinator and an elected member of the Kenton County Conservation district.

The previous study, which was published in 2024, took measurements at three sites along the creek, analyzing fecal contaminants from dogs, birds, ungulates (i.e. deer and other hoofed animals) and people.

“The elevated occurrence of the human-associated marker in these catchments could be a result of the high septic system counts in these catchments,” the study writes. “Septic systems require routine maintenance and if ignored, system failures could be a source of human fecal contamination, especially after rain events.”

A map showing the three catchment sites in the 2024 study. Map provided | Science of the Total Environment

The new study, which is ongoing and will take several years to complete, will collect samples in Kenton County before and after septic tanks are decommissioned and sewer infrastructure is installed.

“What that does is that gives us a really good window into where the bacteria is actually coming from, and where the greatest need and most effective area will be for us to look at in terms of reducing the bacteria loads in the creek,” Clements said.

The Ohio River and many of its NKY tributaries, including Banklick Creek, are categorized by the EPA as impaired.

A waterway has to meet four criteria in order to be considered of good quality: It must be able to support aquatic life, it must be a source of safe drinking water, it must be safe for people to use recreationally (i.e. boating, fishing and swimming) and the fish in it must be safe to eat. If it fails at even one of these criteria, it’s categorized as impaired.

A map of the Banklick Creek Watershed. Map provided | The Banklick Creek Watershed Council

The contamination problem seems to be most acute after heavy rains when contaminated water from failing septic systems runs off into the creek. Several “hot spot neighborhoods,” as Clements called them, have already been identified for downstream sampling. The Watershed Council declined to share exact locations of these spots but said they tended to be found more in the central and southern regions of Kenton County.

“All that runoff from those failing septic systems enters into our waterways and flows downstream into the more populated areas,” Clements said, “down towards Pioneer Park [and] Latonia, where Banklick Creek flows.”

Maintaining (and fixing) your septic system

“The recommendation is that you have your septic tank pumped every three to five years,” said Justin Hancock, the environmental health manager at the Northern Kentucky Health Department.

Hancock estimated the number of septic systems in the health department’s service areas, which includes Boone, Kenton, Campbell and Grant counties, number in the 1000s. Residents in the health department’s service area can apply for a septic site inspection if they believe their system is failing. Inspections run between $200 to $300.

Having your tank pumped at regular intervals is important, Hancock said, because “the solids build up in the tank, and then the liquids go out into the leach field to disperse, so you want to get them solids pumped every three to five years to ensure that they don’t get out into the leach field and the system.”

Other things to look out for are inexplicable wet spots in your yard.

“If your leach field is failing, typically the water is going to end up showing up at the surface,” Hancock said.

Sometimes the signs are less subtle, as was the case with Independence resident Joe Stevens. He and his family moved into his house in 2020, knowing “it was a fixer upper,” Stevens said. They realized they had a septic tank problem when their basement began filing with sewage.

A septic flush truck outside of Joe Stevens’ house. Photo provided | Joe Stevens

This occurred during the pandemic, so finding someone to do the work was difficult. When he finally managed to get a hold of someone, Stevens said, he learned he was going to need “a whole new leach field, and then a couple feet of topsoil on our backyard to raise the whole yard up a couple of feet. So, it was going to be a fairly major project.”

The house was built in sometime in the 1970s, so the system, if it was original to property, was about half a century old at that point. An initial inspection of the property revealed that someone had likely driven a vehicle onto the leach field at some point and damaged the equipment.

A pit where machinery had dug down to investigate filled with standing water over time, which, in turn, attracted a gaggle of croaking denizens. The Stevens dubbed it “the frog pit.”

The frog pit. Photo provided | Joe Stevens

Finding someone to do the repairs was difficult, and the geography of the neighborhood made it cost-prohibitive for the sanitation district to connect their property to the sewer system. In the meantime, they rented a portable toilet and as winter rolled around, they bought some camp toilets to put in the front of the house out of the cold. It was nearly a year before they finally got someone out to give an estimate on the work.

The work itself took about a week, and, luckily, they had help form the Watershed Council. The council provides grants of up to $8,000 to people who need to repair their septic systems.

“Once we got somebody who would actually do the work, and they were able to get us an estimate, everything went very, very quickly,” Stevens said. “After that, [the council] had some grant money available that was was able to be used, and it was a huge answer to a prayer for us.”

Workers in Joe Stevens’ yard, taken through a screen door. Photo provided | Joe Stevens

“Septic systems work great when they are properly maintained and installed,” Clements said. “The problem is we have areas where there aren’t great soils, and so we tend to see higher failure rates.” This is especially true in older neighborhoods where sewer infrastructure construction wasn’t viable, and everybody got put on septic systems.

“Now we’re having whole neighborhoods having issues,” Clements said.

Check out the links below to learn about the 2024 study, septic systems, services from the Northern Kentucky Health Department and information about the Banlick Watershed Council’s septic grant program.