It was discovered last week that the private sewage treatment plant servicing 40 dwellings has collapsed, needing complete replacement. At an emergency meeting this came as a great shock to most residents.
Does anyone have any idea what such a plant would cost to install in
The prices on that website are considerably less than the "rough quote" obtained by the residents' management committee. However, this is in the very earliest stages of discovery.
Thanks a lot for the link. Just as an indicator, the quote was in the region of £100,000. It was stated that the work HAS to be done by a company approved by the environment agency.
No, he's just trying to extrapolate the breakdown from your figures. Apart from anything else he hasn't allowed for the installation of the £11k plant.
replying to MM, Iggy wrote: Why not ask the people who are going to do it? And how could you possibly complain about or try to negogiate a price here? The old has to be removed as well as possibly a mountain of contamination, then new fill goes in and then and only then does the new plant go in. It's more than a lot of work and you still have permit and inspection costs atop materials and labor. Even 300,000 or less than 10,000 per dwelling would sound absolutely credible.
Can't help but today I ran past two sewage treatment systems. One old fashioned ugly filter bed system with the rotating sprinkler arms and the other was a modern "green" reed bed system, biggest one I've seen.
Couldn't smell anything from the old system, the reed beds stank.
No one knows that yet. We were only informed yesterday.
I am not complaining, nor negotiating. I am simply asking a question.
Yes, well, I kind of guessed that already!
Then none of the properties is saleable, therefore worthless and the entire estate will have to be condemned as unfit for human habitation and all residents rehoused by the taxpayer.
One company's website I looked at used to sell reed bed systems, but a red warning notice near the foot of the page stated that they have discontinued them after one customer almost died, presumably from infection of some sort.
That's a bit on the pessimistic side. This is well within the range a leaseholder of a flat might have to find (or borrow) in order to maintain the common property. And any house with adjacent open land has the possibillty of putting in their own sewage disposal arrangements if the whole group can't get their act together. This would probably be substantially more expensive though.
replying to MM, Iggy wrote: Very good, thank you for the clarification. However, you might want to start talking to Lawyers, The Health Dept., County Engineering, etc. These things don't just happen, there was abundant negligence by someone and most especially by the Gov't Agencies named. No homeowners should be short changed here for Gov't inaction, fraud and criminal negligence.
Depending upon the site available and the drain layout, it might be possible to install the new unit first, divert the drains into it, then worry about the old one. That would minimise disruption and you might find that the old unit doesn't need to be removed, although it would probably need to be filled in for safety.
They would not get planning permission. People have already enquired several years ago and the authorities state that there is a communal private sewage treatment plant for the estate and that's that.
You are absolutely correct in those comments. Residents assumed that what the management committee was tasked to do, was being done. This goes back several years. However, it has become known that the original installation was allegedly carried out inexpertly. First, the tank in the ground is supposed to be supported on ALL sides by a concrete barrier or containment. This was not, or only partially, implemented, thus causing the tank (fiberglass) to start collapsing inwards.
Second, the spec was allegedly not correct in that the original design provided for ONE tank, but "someone" (surveyor? local authority?) decided after construction had commenced that a SECOND tank was required as well.
Third, the company who supplied the plant has ceased trading.
Fourth, the company that built the estate and all amenities, including the private sewage treatment plant (PSTP) is allegedly still trading.
BUT....!
To take all those involved to court would cost a fortune. Probably well in excess of the £100,000 rough quote for a new PSTP. It would also take forever to go through the courts, with appeals and so on, while in the meantime the estate could be left high and (literally) dry with no sewage treatment for 120 persons (estimated).
So it is a complete and utter shambles and I cannot see how on earth it is going to be resolved. The Environment Agency and other agencies are *extremely* strict about sewage and groundwater contamination, quite rightly.
However, this cannot be the only PSTP to have failed and I'm trying to discover which ones may have anywhere in the country and what was done about it. There are just in Lincolnshire around 4,000 PSTPs of one size of another, because Lincs is a large, very rural county.
Further note: Five years ago Anglian Water "adopted" the sewage treatment of a whole village in the neighbourhood. All the dwellings and farms at the time had their own cesspits/septic tanks. Anglian Water constructed a new sewage treatment plant (size of a bungalow on a plot of about half an acre) and dug up the single, main road through the village to put all properties on to mains drainage. The work took over a year, as I recall.
Residents here have always hoped that AW would do the same here, but I wrote to AW several years ago and their reply was that we live too far from any of their mains sewers, so it ain't gonna happen.
Please bear in mind that I am in no way involved in the management of this shambles, but am endeavouring to find out on my own as much as I can as an individual resident who has religiously paid the £400 annual service charge every year. Obviously, all residents have been extremely complacent over the years and believed everything they were told. I think even now not all residents appreciate the dire situation confronting them.
If you have any further suggestions, feel free to mention them!
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