ALPENA — Northeast Michiganders may soon be required to have their home septic systems checked on a regular basis if two bills introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives earlier this year come to pass.

During a District Health Department Number 4 meeting on Tuesday, Kevin Prevost, environmental health director of DHD4, updated the board about current details following the introduction of Michigan House Bills 4479 and 4480, which would require inspection of septic systems in the state.

The bills would require all residential systems to be inspected every five years by the state. If houses are found with faulty systems, homeowners would be required to repair them.

During the meeting, Denise Bryan, DHD4 administrative health officer, and Prevost were concerned about the bill’s financial structure. Bills 4479 and 4480 say that the state would handle these inspections, but did not specify how.

“What we want to safeguard is that we don’t have to build the plane as we’re flying it, we really want to have a funding mechanism,” Bryan said. “Are they going to subcontract the inspections out or is it on the back of public health?

Members of the board raised other concerns including the fact that rural counties have varying quality levels of septic infrastructure and many houses are passed on generation to generation, without thought of inspection. Some systems that were acceptable years ago may not pass current standards after an inspection.

Prevost said stakeholders have voiced opposition toward the bills and since “there’s been enough pressure” it may come to hearing around September. Bill 4479 was introduced by Rep. Phil Skaggs and 4480 by Rep. Carrie Rheingans on April 27.

According to the DHD4 website, the board’s next meeting will be July 18 in Cheboygan.

The District Health Department No. 4 Health Board on Tuesday also:

∫ Received a refresher on animal bites from Dr. Joshua Meyerson, the DHD4 medical director, since the department deals with a lot of animal bites. Bites may have potential for rabies and other diseases to be transmitted to anyone.

No concerns over these bites were raised, but the information was still included because of the cases the department works on.