Disposal dilemma

[Waterlogged]

Hi: An interesting problem. I am buying a rural 2 acre
with a 3bdrm 2ba house which inspection determined had a
irredeemable gravity septic system. it was determined that
a sand filtration system was the only alternative for the
seller. The State of N.C. oversees this project however only to the extent of paying an early visit to the site and
then approving the design plans of a civil engineer. There
is no follow-up inspection but a reliance on the certification of the engineer.

The system discharges chlorine-treated waster to an exit pipe on the surface to a DRY creek for runoff. You can
likely see the problem there is no runoff since the topography is flat and there is not ongoing flow. The
water even if it is helped by rain will dead end on the
property at the property line.

It seems to me (I am a city boy in the country) that I
am going to be looking at mucho stagnant water and mosquitos
in Summer (odor?) and ice problems in winter, (the pipe is
on the ground but does have a filter).

The state says that it doesn't like to issue these permits
and won't do it for new sites but does it in hardship cases.
The county whose jurisdiction it will fall into once certification takes place is reluctant to get into a conflict with the State.

Whats one to do?

Thanks for any help, appreciated much,

Hugh Giblin

 

[jhelm]

If the creek is an intermittent one that does flow during heavy rains or for part of the year, there may be some subsurface flow occuring all of the time below the stream bed. Your effluent flow may filter down through thre creek bed into this shallow aquifer. You could potentially test this by doing a "perc" test in the stream bed or trying to dig down to the water level, looking for wet sand or gravel.

Another option might be an evaporation system of some kind. I do not know if these have been applied to homes, but there are systems commonly used in industrial settings that take wastewater and evaporate the water with an electric or oil-fired heater, leaving a concentrated sludge if there are solids. One company that makes such systems is C-Tech Industries. Their website is

http://www.c-techindustries.com.

A low tech solution might be to collect the effluent and put in a pump system to spray it for irrigation on your property. This technique is also in fairly widespread use in agriculture. You can use a conventional pump and sprinkler system operated on a timer or level control system from a small reservoir at the outlet of your filtration system. The volume of effluent will be low much of the time, so operating it for short periods would be necessary.

 

[snafuman]

I agree with jhelm. Some other suggestions: reduce wastewater flows any way possible. Consider double piping your household waste, i.e. separate greywater (lavatories, laundry, showers, etc) from blackwater (toilets) and put the greywater into a drip irrigation system. Effluent from a septic tank could possibly be put into a drip system. There are also mound and fill type septic systems which may be possible at your site, but must be engineered and may be esthetically unpleasant. We have also used a packaged sewage treatment plant, Cromoglass unit made in Pennsylvania, which produces a relatively high quality effluent which could be used for irrigation or possibly even surface discharged. One problem you may have with any such unconventional system, though, is getting approvals from your local health authorities.