Alternative Septic System Solutions

[BettyM]

I want to buy a house by a lake with a septic system. The house never had a septic system that was approved. In other words, I can't use the existing system.

According to the county, I have to find 360 ft of field lines to add additions to a 2 bedroom house. My field lines have to be 50 ft back from the lake and 100 ft from a well on a neighbors' property.

My lot is only .4 acre and has a lot of cut/fill areas that are unapproved. Plus the lot heavily slopes.

In other words . . . I will never have the field lines unless the neighbor shuts down their well.

Are there alternatives to septic systems that a metro county will approve near a well and with less field lines? I tried proposing an aeration system but the county requires the same length of field lines and distance from the well.

[tm]

What metro county? Somewhere in Georgia?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Depends on wehre you live. Talk to the building inspector.

[nicksanspam]

PA would allow that, but likely require the same, and chlorination. They seem to have no problem with systems with no liquid output...

The PA-approved "Sundrive" evapotranspiration system uses the sun to evaporate water from a reed bed in a large greenhouse with a waterproof bottom. The greenhouse could be a lot smaller if it condensed the water vapor before it left the greenhouse or condensed (distilled) a small amount of potable water from black water and filtered the grey water for non-potable reuse. This might be the only water supply for a house, with some rainwater to make up for evaporation.

The standards are clear and easy to test for in PA: max limits for BOD, suspended solids, and ammonia as nitrogen, which you can test in your kitchen. I made a system that processed 12 gallons per day of wastewater and exceeded public treatment plant standards treatment with a few plastic trash cans, an air pump, a heater, a ferric chloride drip, and a sand filter. Complications come with the required permits, licensing, public hearings, periodic testing, and ownership and maintenance issues, if it's a small shared system.

Nick

[No]

Holding tank is an option but not conviient or low cost (Long run cost). Here is a description.

If you went that route you could look into splitting some wastewater. Laundry discharge to the yard for example.

Also, everything would need to be made low flow. I have no experience with these systems but it sure beats making you own waste processing station! Any chance public sewers in the future? Maybe all you need is a stopgap.

[Ross Mac]

"No" might have something here. You might want to look into a greywater system and split the toilet/disposal waste between the two systems. That would be greywater and blackwater or septic. These things vary so much from county to county you might want to call and find out what the regulations are. If they allow it, you might be able to reduce your leech field by about

50%.....good luck....Ross

[No]

Thanks Ross - I do get a couple of good ideas now and then1

[Trekking Tom]

You could offer to drill the neighbor a new well so that you can put yours septic where you want. You could also share the well with the neighbor. Put it on your property and pipe it over to him. Sometimes they use to pumps one above the other. Wells near lakes are almost never very deep or that expensive.

Tom

[CathyLee]

Did you look into a peat system, I am not sure of the details/regulations, but we are a test farm for this system for 3 years now and it is working well for us. There are no field lines...

CathyLee