In September of 2007, Fannin County Commissioners voted to amend Fannin County’s ORDER with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to continue to require maintenance/service contracts on Aerobic Treatment Septic Systems (ATU). 

Then, in November of 2008, the ORDER was amended again to allow homeowners to perform quarterly maintenance inspections and report to the Fannin County Health Department (FCHD) if the owner took a course taught by a TCEQ approved educator on how to properly and safely inspect their ATU.  This gives a single family residence owner of an ATU a choice whether to enter into a contract with a licensed Maintenance Provider or take a course approved by the FCHD, purchase a tool to measure sludge and a chlorine residual test kit and report quarterly to FCHD.

For more information on the course and to register for a class, interested persons should call Environmental Training Systems at (979) 798-4085.  ETS has agreed to come to Fannin County to provide a course for owners of ATU systems in order to be in compliance. 

Their website is www.EnvironmentalTrainingSystems.com   

You may also call Fannin County Health Department at (903) 583-7495.

ETS will be in Bonham on Saturday, May 30, 2009 at the Fannin County Courthouse South Annex, 210 S. Main St.  This is an 8-hour class and each participant will be responsible for their own lunch.  ETS currently charges $ 169.00 for the course.

As space is limited, the Fannin County Health Inspector, Mary Bloodsworth, advises anyone interested in taking the course to contact ETS to reserve a seat as soon as possible.  She also advises that this class is not a course to train an owner to perform major repairs, but for an owner to recognize when their ATU is operating properly or not and making a decision to contact a licensed professional for repairs. 

The owner needs to understand that an ATU is basically a scaled-down version of a municipal sewage treatment plant, it contains toxic chemicals and human waste.  Add electricity in water and the potential for serious injury or worse and possible exposure to diseases, it is necessary to learn as much as you can to stay safe while doing basic maintenance and providing required quarterly inspection reports to FCHD.

Mary Bloodsworth also advises citizens that Fannin County is only providing this information as a courtesy to the owners of ATU systems to be in compliance and is not an advertisement or a specific referral to Environmental Training Systems.