testing groundwater

[Robert Harsell]

How would one go about testing an intermittent spring to find out if it was receiving effluent from a residential septic system?

I have tested for coliform and it is off the chart. What I don't know is if the coliform is human or animal. The tests to differentiate between human and animal are complicated and expensive. However, if I could test for some item that might be common to a household, it would prove that effluent from the septic system is entering the groundwater and hence the intermittent spring.

 

[Compositepro]

You can pour some fluorescein dye into your septic tank.

https://www.toolexperts.com/trace-a...MI1uffvrHG3wIVgjppCh27hQMaEAQYASABEgL_b_D_BwE

 

[itsmoked]

You could also ask this question in the correct forum...

forum164

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Robert Harsell]

Thank you for the replies.

With regard to the fluorescein dye, yes, this would be ideal. However, the septic tank is my neighbor's, and the coliform in my spring water is a contentious matter. I know their sewage is coming up in my water big time, but they also have a few farm animals, not many, but they can claim that any coliform in the water comes from their animals, not from them. This area is zoned agricultural, so they're covered.

I know there would be some coliform in my water that could originate from their animals, but it would be minimal. I'm getting levels of coliform that could only come from a large household with a septic system.

If there were a way to test for things that are commonly used in households, like dish soap, hair rinse, laundry soap, pharmaceuticals, etc., then I would make these tests on my spring water.

 

[Compositepro]

It occurs to me that a septic system is designed to leak 100%, so there is no point to a leak test. If there is a problem to fix, it will be with your well, not your neighbor's septic. You may need to fix the casing on your well to prevent contamination by surface water, or just perform a bleach treatment (one time or continuous in-line).

 

[Robert Harsell]

I don't have a well. The Blue Ridge Mountains are underlain with karst. During dry spells, when the water table is low, the plume emanating from a septic tank goes down like it is supposed to. The soil around here percs well. I live on the skirt of the mountain, close. When we have a lot of precipitation, or a wet, snowy winter, the intermittent springs begin to flow. The water table rises all the way to the surface. This area is referred to as the "Riverheads District."

When the water table rises it brings with it the sewage plumes from all the septic systems. Instead of pure, clean, mountain spring water arising from the ground, we have effluent from septic systems. I refuse to use a septic system. I compost. Not one turd of mine, nor any coliform of mine, has ever entered the groundwater. I am a one-percenter, nay, a one-thousandth of one-percenter.

My attitude is not appreciated. I don't rub it in. I rarely speak of it, but around here, all you need to do is whisper something one time, especially on the subject at hand.

My neighbor did not bring in a cow and hogs until word got out that somebody had mentioned sewage in the spring water.

The springs are running strong now. Sometimes they do not run for a year or more, sometimes two years. This is an opportunity to test.

What can I test for proving that household water is in the spring water?

 

[itsmoked]

Robert I commend you for your personal environmental efforts.

For your problem though, and after your local environment description, I think you may be barking at the wind or tilting at windmills - not that I ever figured out what that means.

In the big picture what's the point? What if you get an expensive report stating it's from so-and-so's septic right down to the brand of dish soap you've found on a midnight low-crawl to his garbage can? If his system is typical of the area where all the leach-fields choke every winter and the entire neighborhood smells like sewage (we have one around here) you're not going to get anyone at the county to do anything about it are you? Even if you do it will likely be transitory and whatever is done will fail to continue to be done right or the septic will somehow be remedied about the same time pigs are added to the herd.

Meanwhile, this all makes you stress-out and hate your idiot neighbor, something that's easily as unhealthy as coliform!

Why not put in your own little water plant to deal with it ALL regardless of what crap (literally) comes your way. Doing this allows you to not focus on trying to get specific neighbor actions done and it also protects you FAR MORE than any other alternatives you can come up with. With a full treatment system you won't be caught, like you absolutely will be otherwise, by seasonal spikes or upstream biological activities you're not aware of. How does it help to take a test only to find you've been ingesting 'whatever' since some time after your last test?

Put in a little surface water treatment system and "be protected". These systems take a little more intelligent care than the average system but you clearly have the chops to do it and keep it running well. Having a system like this wipes away all the other aforementioned social/neighbor stuff.

I helped a PE CE put in a 'Surface water system' that used a surface creek to supply a $32M house in Big Sur below the highway. The source was a creek that ran for about a mile down a hill along the highway, under the highway in a culvert down another thousand feet to pond a 100 feet above the California surf. The pond usually had rotting leaves and vegetation floating in it. The water was pumped the thousand feet back up the hill to the little plant for treatment having used the pond as the storage. The plant was about the size of a garden shed. It was not technically sophisticated. You would probably need a tank to hold the treated water for your domestic use as apposed to simple pressure tanks after a pump. Usually not a problem at most places.

Here's what the plant consisted of:
A sand filter to sieve out the leaves and gunk.

A General Electric(?) Membrane filter system with two alternating filters that swapped to allow flushing while still filtering. (Looked like fat water softener tanks.)

Followed by a turbidity meter (the only technical thing) which was a light bulb and photo sensor thing.

Followed by an actual micron canister filter.

Who's output was chlorinated and piped to a 500(?)gallon baffled tank that was used as a time delay for the chlorine to do its work, before human consumption.

The water was drawn from the delay tank at a point to make sure the water took x amount of time in the tank before being used, and pumped into the "finished tank" a second 500gallon tank.

There was only the barest hint of chlorine in the second tank and if that bothered you you'd add a carbon filter at your drinking tap.

That was it.
I have no doubt you could maintain such a system.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[EdStainless]

Here in WI many people are being forced to install engineered mound systems (most using designs from U on Minn) because the ground percs too well, not enough retention.
If a septic system is working correctly there will be no FCB outside of the immediate leach bed.
That said, most local regulations only address gross system failure and not issues such as you describe.
Your neighbors system meets the rules, it is just that your local rules aren't adequate for the ground conditions.
Even if it was from his system there is nothing that you can do.

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