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Septic Tank Doo Doo's and Don'ts and Sand Point Tips

Posted by vinylgirl on February 18, 2007 - 4:33pm
from Brian Reitzel

Septic Tank Do's and Don't

  • Don't allow any waste that has not passed through your bodily system to enter the septic system i.e. no coffee grounds, peelings, food preparation waste, cooking oils etc. should be allowed to go down the drains.
    There are special strainers available (at the Dollar Store -- guess how much they cost ...) in different sizes for different drains that will catch all the bad stuff, after rinsing dishes food processing etc. that then can easily be disposed of in the garbage or a composter.
  • Even paper products should not be flushed, they are wood fibre, have a container for this so it can be burned or put in the garbage. No cigarette butts should be flushed!
  • Water softener discharge should not enter the septic system, nor eavestroughs or other drainage. Avoid excess water use! If it is yellow let it mellow --if it is brown flush it down!
  • Don't plant trees (or "rooty" foliage) where roots could compromise the system.
  • Check the tank annually for sludge build up, have it pumped regularly (3 or 4 years), your Sanitary Engineer will advise you how often is necessary for your personal system and usage.
  • Beware of overuse of cleaners (liquid detergents, Green preferable) avoid antibacterial soaps.
    Vinylgirl's note here ~~ a house we bought actually had the pipe from the kitchen sink diverted from the main and ran into a cistern. . .we had no idea about this prior to purchase. The sludge which was a mixture of detergent and sink goop formed a matter with a consistency of black margarine
    . No joke, detergents are a bad.
  • Usually additives are not necessary but ours seems to thrive on a treat of active beer yeast of which I usually have a lot on hand!

A septic System is a living thing!!!

Reitzel's Sand Points

  • Always observe proper distances from Septic tanks (30 to 40 yard's)?
  • The deeper the point is installed the better, 18 to 25 feet would be ideal.
  • Have your water checked yearly (at least). This is a free service from the Health Department, they even supply the proper sample bottles with directions.
  • If your water quality or quantity diminish after a few years the point should be pulled and replaced or cleaned.
  • Iron deposits on the sand point screen is the usual culprit. I always keep a spare point on hand fresh and cleaned with muriatic acid.
  • Never spray chemicals anywhere near the point, i.e., pesticides (even Round Up), I believe these cosmetic sprays should be banned, they all end up in the water table.
If water is tested and noxious stuff found there are filters and treatments available that are a lot safer than chlorine, and sloppy public employees!!

Have sandpoint or septic tips to add or questions for our local experts?
Add them in the comments!

‹ Sauble Water and Sewer. Addendum No 2 Revised Looking for someone to pump my septic tank... ›

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A Septic Pick Me Up

Submitted by Dan O. on February 18, 2007 - 8:35pm.

Septic tanks love the odd shot of good old Coca Cola. The sugar and phosphate are invigorating to the bacteria.

The last time I checked 5 states had banned to addition of water softener backwash from septic systems. I'd guess that there are hundreds in the town there. Septic bacteria like salt as much as trees do. On top of that the excess salt goes into the water system.

Reitzel; why do you keep a spare sand point on hand. Are you pulling the old point out and driving the new point down the same hole?

Dan O.

Septics on Coke

Submitted by garym on February 18, 2007 - 9:07pm.

Coca Cola??

Ok, Dan, please, sir, do tell:

  • how much? how often?
  • Do they prefer Coke Classic or Vanilla?

My guess is ix-nay on the Iet-day Oke-cay :)

Now, related to this comment of yours about the softener backwash and Reitzel's comment about unpredigested materials ... does this mean you would use some other out-bound pipe for these wastes? How do you engineer that? Separate cistern periodically emptied? A garden hose leading far from the sandpoint? And do these massive newer homes that are popping up already employ waste-water separation schemes to deal with these issues?

hey ... wouldn't that be great? Home waste-water pre-sorted the way we all now so routinely and without fuss sort and route our cans and bottles, and grade our waste-paper! Something tells me such practice, if unknown today, will be as commonplace in tomorrow's world as our ubiquitous blue-boxes ...

I have really great water, clean and clear ... but hard. Off-the-scale hard. Our water is so hard you can crack an egg on it. It's so hard Ebel Quarries has bid on my fixtures. Ok, maybe not but it is so hard that those dollar-store drain nets clog with limestone in days :(

Is there anything eco-friendly that I can do about this? Someone mentioned giving the sandpoint some sort of acid-clensing, and considering the masonry crusting my faucets, I'd think such would might in order at least once a decade, but I've never seen any products offered as meant for this purpose, and the only water-quality vendor who ever contacted us could only offer his hi-tech salt-softener system (that, like his business, ceased to work years ago).

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

Some more tips/clarification

Submitted by vinylgirl on February 19, 2007 - 12:48pm.

Not sure if my previous post on this worked. I don't think so.
Muriatic Acid was mentioned for sand point cleaning.
_______________________________________________________________________
How To Clean a Sand Point: (B.R.)
Add the acid to the water, not the other way around!
Use a length of drain pipe, 3 to 4 inch in diameter and cap the end. Put the point in, fill part way up with water (3/4) and 1 litre or so of acid, add enough acid to cover the screen. Leave it alone for a few days, it will stink as it dissolves the iron. After a few days, rinse, if it doesn't look clean, repeat!The acid neutralizes after a few days, rinse out the pipe and point in an area of the property away from well & septic.
_______________________________________________________________________

LIMESCALE REMOVAL IN THE HOME. (LAST RESORT)
YOU DON'T NEED MUCH AND BE CAREFUL. Yes, it is caustic and bad(if you use it too much), and you have to wear goggles and gloves to use it. It is great to use as a last resort for lime/rust/minerals that have become haywire. A few drops in a non chemically treated(no chlorine pucks etc.) toilet (now mind you, I am on municipal here, I don't think it would be good for a septic tank, correct me if I am wrong), cleared up the problem of years of scale, and prior to our purchase, I had stalagtites and stalagmites. It is a good option if you will be following up removing scale with more enviro friendly options such as pickling vinegar. (If you keep up with the pickling vinegar, on a regular basis, I find that the buildup doesn't occur as much). You can sit your drain nets in it overnight.

Now with the grey water and separate hoses. Kitchen water is not considered grey but actually "black" if not "prefiltered" (since it had chunky waste (for lack of a better technical term) and it sure was. The house I mentioned that we bought last year, where the previous owner cut his line to the main and had all his kitchen waste diverted to a cistern was the most disgusting thing I have ever encountered. He was too lazy to replace the plumbing. All the kitchen waste sat in a cistern until a sump pump pumped it out into the storm sewer. When we found the problem, all the detergents mixed with kitchen stuff had become an ooze and yes, the consistancy of black margarine. We had to get a septic pumper out to pump the old cistern and then we had to bleach and backfill with sand. Re plumb. I was told it was just as toxic as sewer waste if it is let to build up. So it is better just to let it go to your septic. I think there are laws regarding grey water diversion, and it would be interesting to see what is found.
Note: a quick google and I found this, seems like it is against the law at the time this was written: http://www.toronto.ca/watereff/pdf/appi.pdf . Mind you, if there were viable options for grey water usage, if done correctly, it would be great.

Now with the kitchen water, anything that is prefiltered by the drain nets is okay to go down the drain (minus oils). ( Just don't use a copious amount of detergent. There are some great natural and safe detergents out there. Melaleuca is a good source of detergents and cleaning products that leave a small enviromental footprint, I am sure there are others as well.

Compost what collects in the nets - at least the vegetable material.

If you heat with a woodstove, burn the paper material, otherwise it goes in the garbage. TP doesn't break down that easily and if too much goes down, it impedes the workings of the septic tank. Sounds gross, but, it is not unheard of, a few people I know really watch their TP disposal who are on septic tanks or even use outhouses, with good results (meaning less problems in the long run).

Submitted by vinylgirl on February 18, 2007 - 9:54pm.

Dan O.

An extra sandpoint is always good to have on hand. It takes about a week to clean one, if you do not need to buy a new one. It's like going hiking and bringing extra socks.

As far as I know they are putting the sandpoint down in an old hand dug well so it's protected, same general area, but then pounded down an extra 10 feet or more (until you hit the the old shoreline gravel and you can't pound any more).

Sandpoints and stuff

Submitted by Dan O. on February 19, 2007 - 12:14am.

Thanks Vinylgirl. You're explaination makes things a lot clearer. I was picturing a 30' deep sandpoint that was capped at the top. Not an easy job to replace.

Garym; just as vinylgirl adds the lees from brewing, a 2 liter bottle offers that little pick me up to a sluggish system. You could get exotic with the vanilla but good old Coke is the stuff (Pepsi or Royal Crown if you really have too). No diet pop, you want the sugar. This increases the availability of easily digested food. The bacteria go into a growth stage, especially with the phosphate. The increased biomass digest the sugar and continue with the other goodies that you've flushed. As an added benefit one of the waste products of sugar digestion is alcohol. This is a favorite of other anaerobic bacteria in the system. Some waste water treatment facilities add sugar to be able to digest difficult to digest materials. I guess you could compare it to the effects on the human digestion system that a big feed of fruit has. Drink a couple of glasses of fresh pressed grape juice and you'll know what I mean.

Many areas are recommending running the backwash water to dry wells. The water treatment industry is waging a full scale battle so the dust hasn't settled yet.

http://www.watertechonline.com/article.asp?IndexID=6634621

http://www.aquaferwater.com/AWS12.html

Many articles don't even recommend that you use softened water for your grass because of the sodium. Running a hose there with the effluent would have the same effect. The solution as best I can guess: set the water softener on manual and run it as little as possible based on a hardness test. Some systems don't need salt.

Dan O.

Effective Microorganisms for Septics?

Submitted by garym on January 8, 2008 - 1:37am.

I was reading about a Costa Rican resort's success with Effective Microorganism strategies and I just wondered, are there any local septic service companies applying the same approach here in the Northlands?

The concept of 'effective microorganisms' was developed by Japanese agronomist Teruo Higa, from the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa who reported in the 1970s that a combination of approximately 80 different microorganisms is capable to positively influence decomposing organic matter such that it reverts into a 'life promoting' process. Higa invokes a 'dominance principle' to explain the effects of his 'effective microorganisms'. He claims that there exist three groups of microorganisms: 'positive microorganims' (regeneration), 'negative microorganisms' (decomposition, degeneration), 'opportunist microorganisms'. In every medium (soil, water, air, the human intestine), the ratio of 'positive' and 'negative' microorganisms is critical, since the opportunist microorganisms follow the trend to regeneration or degeneration. Therefore, Higa believes that it is possible to positively influence the given media by supplementing positive microorganisms.
[ Effective Microorganisms ]

A detailed summary of EM methods as applied to sustainable agriculture can be found at the emerging (and largely unfinished) EM-Info Website.

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

Septic Solutions

Submitted by mxyzptlk on January 8, 2008 - 8:12am.

Hi Gary, you should check out Waterloo Biofilter Inc.

I wonder why the town hasn't considered alternative, environmentally friendly solutions to the 'supposed' sewer problems at the beach.

By the way, were you aware of the Notice of Filing of Addendum No. 2 - Revised Class Environmental Assessment Water & Sewage Works Study The Town of South Bruce Peninsula that was issued on Dec 24, 2007 and published in the Sun Times on Jan 2, 2008? Citizens have only a couple of weeks left to comment, or as stated in the notice in the paper

"If no request is received by January 31, 2008, the Town intends to proceed with construction, if funds permit, as outlined in the Addendum"

My wife was reading your "one bag of garbage" blog in which you indicate you are always one of the last to know these sorts of things so thought I would bring this to your attention. I am surprised I have not seen any blog posts on this addendum revision; maybe council will be able to sneak this through ... the timing of the notice and publishing date are suspect in my opinion. The addendum can be found with some effort on the Town's web site; I think there is also a copy at the Sauble Library.

Addendum 2 Revised - I will post on it

Submitted by Dodge on January 10, 2008 - 9:18pm.

I have gone over the document once and I will try an do a summary here of what is in it and what it suggests as a base project for Sauble Beach that will, by removing the responsibility of septic disposal on small lots, hopefully, protect the ground aquifer in the area close to and on the main street. I want to read through it again first.

The group of citizens who own property in this area are the ones who should know the whole story and deserve to be fully informed.