Acceptable septic tank discharge?

Are you sure it’s not caused by cyclists taking a dump? They are well-known for it, village greens being popular for the purpose.

A proper septic tank should not discharge like that. But they often do.

It really needs replacing with an active treatment plant like a biodigester. It wouldn't be allowed as a new build option, but there a lot left that are still in use.

You might get some traction from the environment agency.

I think the only event that can force it to be replaced/improved is sale of the property?

In my case, rebuilding the property.

But yes, it does seem that upgrading the sewage at time of sale is not mandatory.

It is not in general that expensive - my biodigester all in was about £8k installed, money well spent IMHO. No pongs ever again.

sry! NOW mandatory

Sometimes it’s a mistake to extrapolate from your own behaviour. Seriously, does it look like that to you?? As it happens I *know* it’s septic tank run off (as confirmed by my local water authority).

Tim

I haven’t bicycled since my sixteenth birthday, when I came home from school, threw my bicycle away, got astride my motorcycle, and never looked back.

I don’t know, I use WCs.

Getting a PB in a Strava segment is all that matters to many cyclists, and there are dead pedestrians that can confirm that.

When did that rule come into effect. We bought our house in 2019 and its septic tank did not need to be upgraded to a bio digester. Just as well because the loud humming noise from a digester (*) would be most annoying as there is a patio built on top of it; the occasional slurp from a bubble of sewage gas is quite bad enough!

Maybe it's not *all* passive septic tanks that need to be upgraded to active digesters with a motor-driven agitator.

My parents have a holiday cottage which has a septic tank which dates back to at least 1975 when they bought the cottage (and it may date back a while before that) and it will be a problem if my sister (who now owns a half-share in it and will one day inherit the other half-share) ever decides to sell.

Funny story about that septic tank. When we bought the cottage, the back garden had a huge breezeblock-lined chamber, open to the sky. It was completely empty, but it had a 4-inch earthenware T-piece half way up, so almost certainly it was intended as a cess pit (not septic tank as it only had one chamber and no outflow). My dad did some measurements and came to the conclusion that the inflow pipe was at a higher level than the toilet in the house. S*it doesn't flow uphill. I wonder whether a previous owner found that out the hard way, the first time they flushed the loo? ;-) Probably that is why the present septic tank was built.

The cesspit was a useful dumping ground for old rusty storage heaters and rotten kitchen cabinets, and a farmer filled in the rest for us with rubble from his farm and landscaped it. In a few hundred years, maybe an archaeologists will dig up that land and discover all those storage heaters etc.

(*) Judging by the noise coming from a digester in a house further along our road.

Then you’ve gone through life with your eyes closed if you don’t know the difference between a turd and sewage contaminated water.

Tim

Is there anybody there?

Do you have a message for us?

Insert your own pun about Striking a Happy Medium.

Chris

Thanks. It seems it’s down to our council Environmental health department to investigate now. Water board not involved as it’s a private system and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency aren’t interested if there isn’t pollution of a waterway.

The system probably just needs pumping out but I imagine the householders are more likely to do it if approached by the council than a random punter.

Tim

:-)

The move from Royal Parks comes after a pedestrian was killed in a crash with a cyclist in 2022 in Regent's Park

Strava has been urged to remove the roads of Regent's Park, London, from segments, after a pedestrian was killed in a collision with a cyclist.

The operator of Regent's Park, The Royal Parks, has written to Strava and other cycling apps to ask for the removal of the Outer Circle from its leaderboards. It follows a collision involving Hilda Griffiths, 81, a pedestrian who was hit by a cyclist, Brian Fitzgerald, in June 2022, and later died of her injuries.

However, no prosecution was brought as speed limits do not apply to cyclists, with it being recorded as an "accidental cycling collision death". At the Coroners' Court hearing, it was said that the cyclists had been travelling at up to 29mph in Regent's Park, where the speed limit for cars is 20mph.”

To be overflowing, it must be either be being used ( fed with sewage ) or possibly have been damaged / sprung a leak so water ( rain / ground water etc) is getting in.

You don’t mention any buildings etc, other than your house, suggesting there isn’t an obvious source using the tank, at least not currently. Could it be abandoned.

There is another possibility.

The photo seems to show a round pipe.

Years ago, in my childhood, I lived on an estate of houses build in the

Could you be seeing the overflow via a similar vent from a blocked sewer ?

Nope. There are three cottages nearby with no mains sewerage who are on a private system. Local water board have confirmed the absence of any drains that they are responsible for in the area.

Just an old paint pot floating in the “water”. I’m disinclined to fish it out. ;-)

Tim

Have you contacted their owners? Assuming it is their outflow?

The OP could try scattering the contents of a cheap box of bio washing powder into the stream/ditch, to see if the enzymes digest whatever is in there and so get rid of the malodour if not other stuff…

Ocado do this one:

Persil Bio stain Fabric Cleaning Washing Powder