Orleans Board of Health Sets March 5 Fine Deadline for Sewer Holdouts

ORLEANS -- February 5, 2026, Orleans Board of Health warns two Phase One sewer holdouts that $200-per-day fines begin March 5. The board, chaired by Joe Hartjung, voted 5-0 at its February 5 meeting to continue show cause hearings for 8 Old Tote Road and 34 Route 6A, both more than ten months past the March 16, 2025 compliance deadline, with explicit notice that no further seasonal extensions will be granted and that fines will accrue daily absent tangible documented progress. The commercial property at 34 Route 6A drew particular scrutiny; members noted the owner has had, in effect, three years to comply since learning sewer connection would be required. The board also authorized staff to send immediate warning letters to roughly 30 to 40 Phase One properties that have filed applications but have not yet installed, and to the installer community, after members agreed that waiting until Phase Two order letters go out risked allowing Phase One stragglers to "slip through the cracks." A policy debate over whether the Phase Two compliance window, covering an estimated 438 properties, should run one or two years was deferred to the March 5 meeting, with Hartjung saying the arguments for two years had won him over.