Septic tank

[Muddymike]

Recent post about septic tank produced a lot of hot air. Just wondering how many on this list actually live in a house served by a septic tank?

I do.

Mike

[Chris Hogg]

Up until two years ago, so did I, for eighteen years.

[Dave Liquorice]

[Dave Liquorice]

diameter

Yes they do, it's cess pits that don't have an out flow.

[Chris Hogg]

You're thinking of a cess pit! Septic tanks have outflows.

[John Rumm]

kind of - more of a cess pit (800 gallon brick brick cube with a lid set into the ground), but the overflow is piped to the sewage treatment plant on the adjacent farm.

[april showers]

I have a septic tank, but you all know that I said so before.

I am assuming my tank is within regulations because I cannot make any sense of anything anymore.

[Ophelia]

You're thinking of a cess pit! Septic tanks have outflows.

Chris

===

The only difference to ours is that the pipe doesn't go into an absorption field but straight to a burn, though that then flows into a marsh area before any water flows into the river.

[Ophelia]

I have a septic tank, but you all know that I said so before.

I am assuming my tank is within regulations because I cannot make any sense of anything anymore.

==

LOL

[Chris Hogg]

I would say that's a watercourse by any definition, and you will be expected to do something about it. I can't see that the burn flowing into a marsh before it reaches the river makes any difference. The burn is an open watercourse. Drainage fields for septic tanks are all underground, including the pipes from the tank to the field.

[DJC]

and I.

Shared with other half of semi. Large, dates from 1940's apparently. It's in a field about fifty feet from the house.

[S Viemeister]

As do I.

[Scott]

I liked the story (which I hope is true) about the couple asleep in their camper van when they heard sounds of a disturbance outside. It turned out someone was attempting to syphon the fuel but syphoned the septic tank instead :-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ah. Then perhaps I have one

[NY]

Cess pit: sealed container which has no outflow and does little to process the sewage - effectively everything that goes in has to be emptied back out.

Septic tank: two vessels which process the sewage and discharge *fairly* innocuous liquid into a soakway or a water course (though the latter is not allowed in the new 2020 regs)

Mini sewage works: septic tank with mechanical agitation and maybe air bubbled through the sewage to help it to rot more, discharging liquid which is cleaner than for a septic tank, into either a soakway or a watercourse (the latter *is* allowed in the 2020 regs).

[The Natural Philosopher]

Neither have been allowed for years. That's why I had to put in what you call a 'mini sewage works' back in the noughties.. had a septic tank discharging into a soakaway, they said 'New house? Cant use that'

Other methods are allowable. I.e. reed beds etc etc

[fred]

[Ophelia]

I liked the story (which I hope is true) about the couple asleep in their camper van when they heard sounds of a disturbance outside. It turned out someone was attempting to syphon the fuel but syphoned the septic tank instead :-)

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LOL serve them right :))))

[Jim GM4 DHJ ...]

cesspool

[Andrew]

How do you 'syphon' anything from a tank that is below ground ?.