We used to lay down a drainage bed of sand and gravel over the weeping tile before land scaping over it to improve the capacity of the system. Water spreading through such a bed increases the surface area for absorption and evaporation.
Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2008 9:57 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] What Is Septic System Failure? A seperate "grey-water" septic drainage line system can be of benifit. If your property has marginal soils or the ground water tables is shallow (waste water will be competing with the normal environmental ground water). or if your system is old or smaller than it should be for the amount of waste water being discharged to the system. The "grey-water" system should be installed with some thoughts in mind. 1) Often, such systems are "permitted" by the local health departments or county government. 2) Do not make the drainage system line so deep that they are within six inches (some say twent-fur inches) of the "seasonal High ground-water table" (environmental ground water ebbs and flows according to the amount of rain or surface runnoff.) This water table supplies the aquafiers and underground sources with water. It takes a certain amount of soil to "filter" the waste water before it gets into that water source.) Drainage lines that are too deep, do not have that distance of "filtration" and may contribute to the contamination of that water source or the community drinking water ( most homes with septic systems may also have a well-water system for potable water). 3) If you do not establish a "primary settling tank (a septic tank) for your grey-water drainage, then, you must think carefully about the siz e of the openings (holes) in the pipe in the drainlines. That's because the laundry lint, vegetable matter and bath and shower soap/debris will "seal" those openings over time. Often the grey-water lines are shallow and installed with the idea that they will function for a while and then have to be repaired or abandoned and a new one installled. Lee is certainly correct regarding the "suitable soils" issue. The poor soils that are wet or are heavy clay tend to not "perculate" the waste water (either grey or black (septic) as well. Often, those type systems require larger amounts of drainage line and at a more shallow depth. Drain lines work by the process of spreading the waste water out to soils surfaces (inside the drainlines) and allowing it to "perculate" into the soils. The second thing that helps the system work is that the "air" and solar warmth from the environment "evaporate" some of the water from the wastewater. Therefore, depth of the drainline can be important for two reasons. I know it sounds silly, but the warmth and the air that can be part of that process is important (air and warmth does get int soils to some degree). As simple as the idea is, there is a little bit of science that goes along with it. Max in SC -------------- Original message from "Lee A. Stone" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: -------------- For those still using septic tanks another suggestion is to reroute drainage of water from kitchens sinks, washing machines and yes from bathroom showers/ baths to a seperate drainage field away from the septic tank. of course this can only work if you have good drainage in that particular area.. this can be down in a few ways. the simplest being a straight pipe out from the house at least 75 feet. that pipe needs to be after the first 25 feet the kind with many holes in it. . also I helped out on a new construction with making that seperate line with branch lines so there is no way one would overload that original drain line. this so called " gray water" drainage line" can be of great benefit in growing thick green grass, if installed correctly. just a fyi on getting rid of excess gray water. Lee -- If you are what you eat, does that mean Euell Gibbons really was a nut? Do you Jabber? I do. My JID is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
