By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

WILTON – A recent state survey of 15 residential septic systems in an East Wilton neighborhood revealed that two are substandard but not necessarily the only cause of drinking water problems in nine homes there.

Tests of dug wells of nine homes on Thompson and Bennett streets indicated high levels of coliform and, in one case, E. coli.

According to Jim Crowley, an environmental specialist with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, two systems are “marginal at best” and worse at wetter times of year. One home at the intersection “is situated such that it might impact some of the neighbors,” Crowley wrote in his Sept. 29 report to the town.

“The crude septic tank is poorly covered, would not meet code, just beyond the back door of the home. The well is 70 feet down gradient from the (septic) tank, and is surrounded by potential chemical contaminants. No leach field. This tank is a likely source of contamination of local surface level water and a direct threat to their own well,” he reported.

Another home with a drilled well has an open septic tank under a woodpile that “apparently drains to a small wetland,” he wrote.

He also said many of the dug wells are down gradient from septic systems and in close proximity to them. There is one large garden in the middle of the neighborhood that was fertilized with manure, and some homes have animals, including chickens, that may contribute to surface water contamination.

“Though the problem systems are likely to contribute to the problem to some degree, it appears that the fundamental problem is that the residents are drawing their water from the surface, the same layer that their septic systems reside in,” he wrote. “The presence of surface water and small wetland parcels in this neighborhood indicates a degree of impermeability that further calls into question the advisability of consuming surface waters there.”

The town is hoping to extend municipal water lines to the neighborhood, according to Town Manager Peter Nielsen, who delivered a $214,000 grant application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Lewiston on Monday. The town received a $60,000 Community Development Block Grant from the state, which it intended to match with $20,000, but bids for the job came in at twice that amount.

The state block grant will expire in December, Nielsen said Tuesday, but he said the town could be given an extension.

As for the septic problems in the neighborhood, Nielsen said he has been focusing his attention on the drinking water issues there, but it may be something officials will need to deal with in the future, he said.