septic tanks - new EU regulations ?

[aprilsweetheartrose]

Sorry to be a pain but I was talking to someone this moring who said that the EU ( them again!) were changing the rules on Septic Tanks.

I couldnt get out of him what changes exactly but he left me with the impre ssion ( worryingly) that my septic tank is now illegal but didnt explain h ow or whay that could be .

How can they retrospectively legislate for speptic tanks installed 60+ yea rs ago? Apparently it will stop me ever selling my house ( not that I plan selling it) because I dont have something called a bio drainage system ( a load of reeds stuck in a bed??? ).

Does anyone know about this and can they explain it properly for me please?

Thank you.

( PS to those who helped with my storage heaters, I am am grateful. OH is s till deciding which he wants to try - repair or new).

[Robin]

It's not exactly new news as the changes were announced in 2015 to take effect in 2020 (unless you sell before then). This may help - if only to confirm the bad news

[T i m]

As the actual question has been answered elsewhere ... ;-)

Q. If you and your kids were playing in the river downstream of someone else's ancient septic tank outlet, wouldn't you like to think something could be done about it?

How many people would voluntarily 'upgrade' their systems if the legislation wasn't brought into play?

And wouldn't you like to think that the same rules applied if you and you family were enjoying a river in Italy or Spain?

I wonder which EU member state asked the EU to look into this as they rarely think these things upon their own?

On a similar topic, isn't someone in the States currently taking Monsanto to court over heath issues suggested to be down to his exposure to Glyphosate (and wasn't it Germany who asked the EU to look into it)?

Cheers, T i m

[aprilsweetheartrose]

Can I be brutally honest? Why should it bother me? Most of the sewerage discharged from the water companies is next to raw when it hits the sea anyway.

I dont discharge into a stream or river anyway.

[Bill]

In message , [e-mail] writes

Having kept a boat on a mooring not far from a treatment works, I can confirm that.

And when, locally, they trumpeted about the huge improvements made, all I could see was that the pollution moved further away. I just think they mashed it up a bit more and added more pipe to the outlet.

Just another reason why I, and my son, are so angered by the huge amounts we pay to UU and WW.

[T i m]

Of course, it's Usenet. ;-)

Because I guess you and your children plan to carry on living on this planet?

Possibly true, but:

1) That's the sea and not a local (and potentially highly confined) watercourse. 2) Two wrongs don't make a right?

Then you are ok. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[NY]

What are the current rules about discharging grey water (bath water, washing up, washing machine) into a land drain and ultimately a stream, rather than into a septic tank? Obviously all those things going into a sewer when you have mains drainage, but when you have a septic tank, is it more important to put grey water into a septic tank where it is treated and allowed to rot, or is it more important to limit the amount of liquid going into the tank so it works better?

I ask because the cottage where I'm living at the moment has a septic tank dating from the mid 70s at the latest where the toilets discharge, but all other water goes into a communal land drain for the village (along with rainwater which has always been required to go into a separate soakaway, for both mains and septic tank) and this ends up in a stream. Those drainage conditions were last reviewed in the early 90s when a new bathroom and utility room were built. I imagine that any modern rules aren't applied retrospectively.

It's a two-chamber (two-manhole) septic tank, with an outflow of treated water (guess where it goes!), rather than a sealed single-chamber cesspit which would need to be emptied far more frequently.

[Brian Gaff]

I imagine a lot of people would dispute the theory its all based on as it has to be a heck of a lot of years the old systems have operated and we do not seem to have had any issues so far.

Brian

[Cursitor Doom]

You said it yourself: EU regs. The EU can make anything they like illegal. And there's a lot of money in doing so - for *them* that is. EU = Corruption. Never forget it.

[Peter Parry]

The EA had no choice in the matter. The Waste Framework Directive is a European Union Directive -

DIRECTIVE 2008/98/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives

[Andrew]

He's got non-hodgkins lymphoma.

This is a disease of unknown aetiology, just like all the related leukeamias and other diseases.

He is just trying his luck to blame Monsanto for a big compo payout.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You could actually try reading the rest of the thread and learn, for a change. Fat chance.

[tim...]

and seems to have succeeded

tim

[Dave Liquorice]

Settle ment and anerobic digestion, like any other two chamber septic tank. The out flow isn't particulary pleasant but it's not raw sewage.

Define "land drain". Is that: A system of buried perforated pipes designed to remove water from the land. Or a system of buried perforated pipes designed to distribute water into the land?

[mechanic]

...and his case was helped by the Monsanto dirty tricks he received.

[mechanic]

Fairly clueless comment there, mate.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not it damn well is NOT

Ultimately, you do.

[critcher]

there are some on here who would gladly send the kids to Australia for swimming in someone else's river

[John Angus]

Not if you are nowhere near one and it ends up being transpired from what's growing on the discharge field.

[critcher]

and of course there is none whatsoever in good old Blighty.