Littleton Board of Health Unanimously Approves Four Septic Variances for Brant Lane Property

LITTLETON — November 8, 2023 — Littleton Board of Health approves septic variances for failing Quarter-Acre Brant Lane lot. The three-member board voted 3-0 at its November 8 meeting to grant four variances to designer Doug Smith of Soilsmith Designs for a replacement Presby EnviroSeptic system at 3 Brant Lane, a 10,410-square-foot property whose existing system had failed a Title V inspection. Variances included reducing the required groundwater offset beneath the leaching area from four feet to two feet, substituting a UMass sieve analysis for a percolation test, accepting reduced pipe separation at the tank and pump chamber, and allowing mounded fill to reach within three feet of the road boundary instead of the required 10. The board then spent the bulk of the meeting debating a draft overhaul of the town's 1980s-era private well regulations, with member Kevin Baker flagging that a PFAS test alone recently cost him approximately $480 and warning that annual testing mandates would impose "a significant impact" on ordinary homeowners; two residents echoed cost and enforcement concerns in public comment. Board member Baker committed to restructuring the draft before the next meeting, now rescheduled from November 22 to November 29 pending confirmation from Littleton Community Television.