| Summary: | In Sweden there are about 750 000 house holds that have on-site sewage systems (OSS). Approximately 40-60% of these are not approved by todays standards. The OSS releases every year large amounts of nutrients that contribute to eutrophication of the marine environment and emissions also contributes to an increased risk of the spread of infectious agents. Municipalities have a central role to ensure that the OSS’s are living up to both national and regional environmental objectives. Today there are no legal requirements on how municipalities should ensure that the OSS’s complies with current regulations. Each municipality is responsible to adapt their work to the requirements of the Environmental Code. This study examines how ten Swedish municipalities are working with OSS and what the differences are in their approach to this problem. The study presents what is needed for a sustainable upgrade or replacement rate for OSS’s. The study is divided into two parts , the first part summarizes the guidance for municipalities to inspect the OSS and that is available from the govermental agencies and which was considered to be relevant to this study. In the second part , ten Swedish municipalities were interviewed , using so -called semi-structured interviews. The conclusion is that if municipalities are to achieve a sustainable upgrade or replacement rate, more guidance materials on how municipalities should evaluate old facilities are required. More stricter guidelines are also needed to enforce political decisions in order to allocate more resources for the continuing work of OSS but also by setting clearer objectives with which municipalities are enforced to comply.
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