Private Sewage System Impacts in Wisconsin Implications for Planning and Policy

Rural and suburban development has been and will continue to depend heavily on the use of onsite private sewage systems. The exodus to rural settings combined with changing technologies for sewage disposal that reduce site limitations to development have raised a broad set of land use, infrastructure, and environmental concerns. In a study of development in Wisconsin, we found that the type of private on-site sewage system technology makes little or no difference in the extent of sprawl, conversion of agricultural and forested land, and the provision of public infrastructure. However, these new technologies make the use of traditional health-oriented land use regulatory policy increasingly ineffective for managing land use and environmental concerns.