In what proponents say will be an important step in cleaning up St. Tammany's polluted waterways, the Parish Council adopted regulations on Thursday requiring inspections of home sewer systems every three years.

Homeowners with chronically malfunctioning systems could also face fines.

Thursday's 8-5 vote follows years of research and debate, as St. Tammany officials worked out a way to address to the parish's thousands of failing on-site sewage disposal systems that leak raw or partially treated sewage into the parish's waterways.

Starting in January, a team of parish inspectors with the Department of Environmental Services will begin examining the decentralized, on-site disposal systems, commonly called "septic systems," across the southern half of the parish. Their goal will be to edu

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