Berlin Board of Health Unanimously Approves Randall Road Septic Variance

BERLIN -- January 6, 2026, Berlin Board of Health grants a septic variance and begins planning the town's first hazardous waste collection day in roughly eight years. The board voted unanimously at its January 6 Zoom meeting to approve a variance at Lot 1, 118 Randall Road, allowing a builder to swap the designated primary and reserve leach fields so the system can run by gravity rather than relying on a pump, a change triggered by a planned walkout foundation that lowered the plumbing elevation by five feet. Berlin's local regulations, unlike state Title 5 code, require that primary and reserve fields match on gravity-or-pump designation, making the variance necessary. Separately, a board member said vendor setup costs for a hazardous waste day run in the $3,000 to $5,000 range, with a target collection window of April or May; the board said it expects to have firmer cost and logistics details at its January 20 meeting, when a representative from the state's Tobacco Control program is also expected to participate via Zoom.