(a) The Division of Environmental Health Protection of the Department of Health or its authorized agents shall have general supervision and authority over the location, design, construction, installation, and operation of individual sewage disposal systems, and shall be responsible for the administration of this chapter and of the rules adopted pursuant to this chapter.
(b) In order to assure the effective and efficient administration of the provisions and purposes of this chapter, the Division of Environmental Health Protection of the Department of Health is authorized to:
(1) After review by the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare, and Labor and the Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare, and Labor or appropriate subcommittees thereof adopt, and from time to time amend, rules governing the review and approval of subdivisions proposing to utilize individual sewage disposal systems as the means of sewage disposal for part or all of the lots in the subdivision and the location, design, construction, installation, and operation of individual sewage disposal systems proposed for or located in subdivisions or in platted or unplatted lots or tracts of land pursuant to the procedures provided in the Arkansas Administrative Procedure Act, § 25-15-201 et seq., in order that the wastes from the systems will not pollute any potable water supply, or source of water used for public or domestic supply purposes, or for recreational purposes, or other waters of this state, and will not give rise to a public health hazard by being accessible to insects, rodents, or other possible carriers which may come into contact with food or potable water, or by being accessible to human beings, and will not constitute a nuisance due to odor or unsightly appearance;
(2) Include a provision in all rules adopted or amended under this chapter to encourage studies and alternate submissions by engineers, sanitarians, institutions, agencies, and other persons of economically feasible alternate systems for underground and above ground individual sewage disposal systems for use in soils not suitable for normal underground sewage disposal;
(3) Include in rules adopted pursuant to this chapter, definitions and detailed descriptions of good management practices and procedures which, when utilized in the construction of septic systems, will:
(A) Justify variation in field size or in other standard requirements;
(B) Promote the use of good management practices or procedures in the construction of septic systems by adopting under the rules promulgated under this chapter standard permissible reductions in field size which may be applied when the management practices or procedures are utilized in the construction of a septic system; and
(C) Require the utilization of one (1) or more specific management practices or procedures as a condition of approval of standard septic systems where, in the opinion of the authorized agent, unusual site conditions or problems require the additional management practices or procedures to ensure the proper operation of an otherwise standard septic system;
(4) Enforce the provisions of this chapter and any rules adopted pursuant thereto;
(5) Delegate, at its discretion, to any municipality or, in the case of an unincorporated subdivision, the property owners association, any of its authority under this chapter in the administration of the rules adopted pursuant to this chapter; and
(6) Issue permits, and other documents, including the establishment and collection of permit fees and of procedures and forms for the submission, review, approval, and rejection of application for permits required under this chapter.