New septic tank rules

[D14]

Anybody heard about this or has it been covered on here previously? Our local building material supplier is pushing new sewage treatment systems stating that on January 1st 2020 new rules come in where by you must have a treatment plant and septic tanks cannot discharge into field drains, surface water or water courses?

 

[nick...]

Septic tanks are fine discharging into underground soakaways but not into ditches or watercourses.treatment plants are the way to go nowdays
Nick...

 

[Scribus]

Anybody heard about this or has it been covered on here previously? Our local building material supplier is pushing new sewage treatment systems stating that on January 1st 2020 new rules come in where by you must have a treatment plant and septic tanks cannot discharge into field drains, surface water or water courses?

We have a treatment plant here in Ireland as new septic tanks, as I understand it, have been banned altogether. In short they are a total bollux, the time, effort and money we have spent on trying to keep the damn thing running over the past years doesn't bear contemplation and they are widely regarded by those who are inflicted with them as a complete waste of time and certainly no better than a septic tank.

 

[Goweresque]

Anybody heard about this or has it been covered on here previously? Our local building material supplier is pushing new sewage treatment systems stating that on January 1st 2020 new rules come in where by you must have a treatment plant and septic tanks cannot discharge into field drains, surface water or water courses?

As far as I've been able to ascertain that about the size of it. Existing soakaways will be fine, its anything that discharges into a 'watercourse' ie a farm ditch upwards that will need upgrading. However a builder mate spoke to building control locally recently and they haven't got any info at all on it all, and my builder friend also says that the EA aren't even currently dealing with blatant breaches of sewage disposal that he knows of, so how long its going to take them to work out who is and who isn't complaint and then do something about it is anyone's guess.......

 

[Steevo]

As far as I've been able to ascertain that about the size of it. Existing soakaways will be fine, its anything that discharges into a 'watercourse' ie a farm ditch upwards that will need upgrading. However a builder mate spoke to building control locally recently and they haven't got any info at all on it all, and my builder friend also says that the EA aren't even currently dealing with blatant breaches of sewage disposal that he knows of, so how long its going to take them to work out who is and who isn't complaint and then do something about it is anyone's guess.......

Sounds like the answer is to fill the ditch in with stone......then it creates a soak away.

 

[ewald]

We are planning to install one this autumn, any thoughts about the best type?

 

[Still Farming]

Lots and lots of threads on here about it.

 

[Scribus]

We are planning to install one this autumn, any thoughts about the best type?

If you must then defo a solid concrete job rather than glassfibre and make sure the air pump is installed OUTSIDE of the tank.

 

[br jones]

We are planning to install one this autumn, any thoughts about the best type?

How much ground you got ,is it a house ,what type of ground,how close tona water course ?

 

[rob1]

If you must then defo a solid concrete job rather than glassfibre and make sure the air pump is installed OUTSIDE of the tank.

We have two fibre glass/ plastic ones, one for 16 years no problems, but agree the pump needs to be on the outside and NO moving parts in the sh!t

 

[90hp farming]

Whilst we are on about treatment plants etc...…...
Has anyone any experience on the merits (or not) of having a private sewage system `adopted` by the local waterboard. By this I think I mean the water board take control/responsibility for the system and its discharge and then charge the household for a waste element on the water bill (as if one was on the mains sewerage)

 

[DrWazzock]

Somebody upstream of us put a treatment plant in and it produces worse effluent than a septic tank. I don't know why this is, but it makes cleaning our watercourse out a very stinky job. Maybe its broken down and the owners aren't aware. Its put me off rushing to install one here.

 

[Wishful Thinker]

Discharge from neighbours tank, running down lane to ground we take. Little over 100m to popular fishing river. If that was coming from my farm I’d be in some bother.

 

[rob1]

Discharge from neighbours tank, running down lane to ground we take. Little over 100m to popular fishing river. If that was coming from my farm I’d be in some bother.

That system isnt working, if our air pump has a diaphram break you can smeel the tell tale pong that comes from a septic tank, get the air going and its gone in a couple of days max, and the liquid runs clear, a quiet word might be in order

 

[Speedstar]

Anybody heard about this or has it been covered on here previously? Our local building material supplier is pushing new sewage treatment systems stating that on January 1st 2020 new rules come in where by you must have a treatment plant and septic tanks cannot discharge into field drains, surface water or water courses?

Your man is correct as from 1-1-20 new rules with be in place over all the Uk on them

 

[Bruce Almighty]

We've just installed one of these for the farmhouse (which had an old brick cesspit)

Clearwater 12 person sewage treatment plant BTA E12 | FREE Delivery

Clearwater 12 Person sewage treatment plant DTA E12 | Serves up to 2 x 4 Bed Houses | Manufactured by Klargester | Gravity or Pumped Outlet Options | Choice of Inverts | CE Marked |FREE Delivery |Buy online with Great Prices and Secure Payments | Approved Distributor Tanks For Everything Est. 2008

www.tanksforeverything.co.uk

We had an original Entec Biotec installed for our barn conversions in 1995, maintenance has been a couple of compressors and a couple of submersible pumps, that's why we went for a similar system (cheaper now than in 95)

 

[fgc325j]

Septic tanks are fine discharging into underground soakaways but not into ditches or watercourses.treatment plants are the way to go nowdays
Nick...

I reckon dropping a sachet of muck-munchers down the wc every month helps a lot.

 

[Scribus]

We have two fibre glass/ plastic ones, one for 16 years no problems, but agree the pump needs to be on the outside and NO moving parts in the sh!t

The rim that protrudes above ground has become vulnerable to the strimmer over the years and I've put a couple of holes in it already. Maybe ours is a cheap and cheerful model, it was installed at the height of the madness of the Celtic tiger so not everything that was built or manufactured at the time was as solid as one might hope. The submersible discharge pump needs to be recoverable without having to pump it out as well.

 

[Scribus]

I reckon dropping a sachet of muck-munchers down the wc every month helps a lot.

We use that as well but when everything gets warm in the summer it can still whiff a bit. However, the tank is 'clean' on the inside and the folk we've had out to empty and even try and fix it have remarked upon this.

 

[ewald]

How much ground you got ,is it a house ,what type of ground,how close tona water course ?

It is for a bungalow, 60m from a stream (to which it currently discharges), ground a bit low lying (so doesn't soak away much in the winter) - main problem is that is in the neighbours garden. He is being cooperative about allowing us to replace it, so we are going ahead.