Drain line for a water softner

[Rich B.]

My water softner drain line goes into my septic tank, I read that it should NEVER go into the septic tank. The company that installed the system says they do it all the time, but I read the county code and this is not permissible. If I have the installation company change the piping it will cost me a lot of money, I can do this myself at a less expensive price. I just need to have some instructions. I want to run the line out of the basement and into the ground so the brine does not run out on the lawn (against code) or onto the shrubs around the house. I need to know the following: the size of PVC pipe to use, how long a piece of pipe do I need to bury in the ground, and how deep does it need to be so that the water will not affect lawn and shrubs. Do I need to have stone in the hole for drainage? I have about 5 feet before I drill a hole in wood to get outside.

Rich B.

[Joseph Meehan]

The critical part is: "I read the county code and this is not permissible." and "The company that installed the system says they do it all the time" I suggest you call the company and explain they can redo the job according to code or you will contact the count and explain to them that they do it all the time. I suspect they will do it properly. If not the place to go is small claims court. It will cost you little or nothing and they will require the company to do the job right.

[Robert Gammon]

And just where can you run this that it will NOT cause damage??? After all, each flush puts several pounds of salt dissolved in several gallons of water out thru the drain pipe.

As for size 1.0 inch pipe should be fine.

But the question next is how is the effluent from the septic handled, drain field or sprinkled?? Several studies have shown that drain field percolation rates improve with the modest addition of salt. After all, a properly sized system will only flush a few gallons and only do that about once a week or less. Normal household water use is 75 gallons per day per person, most of which goes into the septic.

County rules also say that RO wastewater should not go into septic. This is a bigger concern than water softener as the mineral content is

50% to 100% higher than the well water it was derived from and it dumps from 100% to 200% more waste water than the family consumes.

Having said all this, increasing the size of the septic tank one or two sizes larger than the recommended size and dumping water softener waste and RO waste should not be a problem.

[Oren]

I would not alter the installation for the moment. Any change you make might allow the installer to claim you made the changes., thus a code violation. I can't image him charging "lots of money" to change the pipes he installed that violates the local code.

-- Oren

"Well, it doesn't happen all the time, but when it happens, it happens constantly."