Nearly one in four households in the U.S. depends on an individual septic system or small community cluster system to treat its wastewater. EPA has recently revamped its septic website to better serve homeowners, state and local officials, industry professionals, and its partner organizations. The website includes a suite of new case studies demonstrating what communities across the country are doing to effectively manage their decentralized wastewater infrastructure and find solutions to meet their own unique wastewater infrastructure needs.

On the same day the federal government announced a comprehensive strategy to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced guidance to help federal facilities reduce their pollution to the bay. EPA is delivering to federal land managers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed the most effective tools and practices to reduce water pollution from a variety of nonpoint sources, including agricultural lands, urban and suburban areas and septic systems.