Septic question for Dave Jeeves or others

[v8z]

We're building a new house - 2500 sq ft., 4 bedrooms, 4 occupants. The county in Ohio where I live set requirements as 1000 gallon scrap tank and

1000 gallon ATU, output gravity feed to 1200 lineal feet of Evapotranspiration (ET) trenches.

An annual pumping requirement is probably tied to kick-backs, but there's no way to avoid that expense. However, I've been told that you cannot discharge water conditioning brine into the septic, nor can you discharge it to the sump / foundation drains / daylight, and was given a list of subscription brine haulers.......county's argument was that the salt can harm the septic tank.

I've spoken with several builders and water conditioning folks, and the common reply is to wait until the system is inspected, THEN install the conditioning and drain into the septic. My dad has been doing this for 25+ years in rural New York and has never had a problem. Any research, data, or personal experiences as to why I shouldn't go that way?

[Steve Barker]

option #2. Don't have a softner.

[willshak]

Option #3. Install a separate dry well for "grey water". All my sinks, bath and shower, and dishwasher drain into a dry well separate from the septic tank and fields. When I had a water softener installed, it too drained into the dry well.

[jloomis]

This is called a "grey water" system, and works wonderful except that it is not an approved system by the county......at least here.....

[v8z]

Option 2 - could do without a softener, but we have to have a flushable iron / hydrogen sulfide filter. Option 3 - same prohibition of grey water systems here.

[Dioclese]

Whoa, trigger. Hydrogen sulfide is a gas. There is no filter for it. Well water with hydrogen sulfide gas can be percolated in an aerator bottle. The results of the bottle flushed every 24 hours is common. I have such a system, and the contents are flushed into a large french drain. The live oak trees, St.Augustine grass, and native vegetation don't seem to have a problem with this watered down sulbfuric acid in the native alkali soil. The aeration creates ozone, which in turn, creates sulfuric acid from the process. The maganese dioxide method is similar to tossing alkali batteries in the septic system..

[dlzc]

It actually oxidizes all the way to sulfate, fairly quickly.

... sulfate.

Well, unless you periodically / continually reoxidize the media... which is the point.

David A. Smith

[benick]

My water softener/filter system drains into septic as well as MANY others I've seen...Washing machine as well...No problems...Grey water systems are illegal in Maine as well.....

[Tom Oska]

Install an aeration system.