Do research before holding burial at home

Ordinances about burial on private property vary from locality to locality. 

 Family graveyards dot the rural landscape in Southwest Virginia, and advocates for natural burial contend that the international movement proves again that, as Scripture suggests, there is nothing new under the sun.

Simple pine coffins are back in style.

Franklin County ordinances do not prohibit burying a family member on private property.

Neil Holthouser, the county’s director of planning and community development, said he has fielded about a half dozen inquiries during his tenure of more than five years about burials on private land.

“I always advise folks to check with the health department, so as to avoid burial too close to a well or septic drain field,” Holthouser said. “I also advise people to consider recording an easement so that — in the event they sell their property — they retain the right to access and visit the burial site.”

Lisa Hahn is executive director for the Virginia Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers.

“Nothing in the law prevents a landowner from burying a family member on their own property, provided it does not conflict with public health and zoning laws,” Hahn said in an email. “We recommend to the consumer to check with your zoning department, health department or your local government administrator.”

Roanoke County ordinances allow the burial of a family member on private property as long as the interment meets three conditions, including that the burial site be at least 300 feet from any public property containing a well used with a public water supply.

An Alabama man made national news this fall when forced by court order to exhume the body of his wife. He had buried her in the front yard of the couple’s home in the small city of Stevenson without the city’s permission.

Complications can occur

Don Wilson is president of Roanoke-based Evergreen Memorial Trust, which manages several regional cemeteries, including Forest Rest Natural Cemetery in Franklin County. Forest Rest, which adjoins a conventional cemetery, does not allow concrete burial vaults, chemical embalming, non-biodegradable caskets and conventional grave markers.

Wilson said people who elect to hold a funeral and burial at home sometimes regret that decision. The handling of a loved one’s body can be a complicated and ultimately disturbing experience, he said.

Meanwhile, can decomposing bodies buried without vaults and conventional coffins be a source of pollution or disease?

“People have raised all sorts of issues but there is no evidence that bodies in cemeteries, green or otherwise, pose public health concerns,” said Joe Sehee, co-founder of the Green Burial Council.

In 1998, the World Health Organization published a briefing titled “The Impact of Cemeteries on the Environment and Public Health.” The briefing reported that seepage from decaying corpses contains 

“bacteria, viruses and organic and inorganic chemical decomposition products.”

The WHO briefing concluded that “the pollution potential from cemeteries is present, but in a well-managed cemetery with suitable soil conditions and drainage arrangements the risk is probably slight.”

Conventional caskets with man-made components pose a pollution risk, the briefing suggested, adding, “Ideally, coffins should be made of materials that decompose rapidly and do not release persistent chemical by-products into the environment.”

Jeff Hardy is treasurer of Hardy Doric Inc., a company based in Chelmsford, Mass., that sells concrete and metal burial vaults and cremation vaults.

Hardy said he believes the green burial movement will fade as related problems become evident.

“It’s a current fad but it really is not a practical or safe alternative,” Hardy said.

He said settling graves will challenge maintaining the grounds and that bodies buried without being chemically embalmed or adequately contained could present a health hazard and be vulnerable to being unearthed by animals.

Historical context

In his book “Cemeteries,” published in 2010, Keith Eggener, then an associate professor of American art and architecture at the University of Missouri, described the evolution of cemeteries in the United States.

Today, Eggener is a professor of architectural history at the University of Oregon.

He suggested Hardy’s concerns about green burial reflect a businessman’s natural tendency to protect his turf.

As for animals digging up remains, Eggener said, “It’s not like bodies at natural cemeteries are buried just a foot or two beneath a pile of leaves.”

Eggener said that as old churchyard and municipal graveyards filled up with bodies in the 18th and 19th centuries, sometimes with coffins buried five or six deep, people began to see these sites as inadequate and as possible carriers of disease during urban epidemics.

Established in 1831, the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., became America’s first “rural cemetery,” he said, allowing for larger burial grounds, removal of the dead from the midst of the living and the establishment of park-like settings for recreation.

During the 20th century, as mechanical mowing took hold, memorial parks became a trend. These cemeteries featured flat grave markers with names and dates.

Eggener said he anticipates choosing a natural burial for himself instead of a conventional burial or cremation. Conventional burials consume a lot of resources, he said, and green burials seem less wasteful.

“I like the simplicity of it, just the whole idea of going back to nature, being part of the cycle,” Eggener said.