Going in to effect on July 1, 2010 is the inspection of septic tanks at the time of sale or transfer of property.  The Iowa DNR requires an inspector to be certified.  The DNR also estimates that there are 100,000 failing septic tank systems.  The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the Iowa Senate in 2007, recently approved by a House vote of 95 to 3 and signed into law by Gov. Chet Culver.  

If you are not happy with this legislation you can thank your state legislators for this.  There are some counties in Iowa where this is already mandatory.  For the areas that do not require this, have some transitioning to do.  Right now there is a discussion of who will pay for this.  The seller, or the buyer?  Another area of concern is who is certified or the lack of certified inspectors.  Summer is the busiest time of year for selling and buying.  This could hinder sales in real estate with sellers getting frustrated trying to find someone in their area to come out and inspect their septic tank.

I will be going to a meeting put on by the DNR and will be writing an update on this topic later this month.

Thanks for reading.