Believe it or not, sewage treatment is a relatively new concept.  Not that long ago guess what cities did with their wastewater...they funneled it directly from the houses/businesses through tunnels under the city to a river.  And guess where they got their drinking water from...often that same river.  Yummy.  But there was a little problem with this process; it got people sick. 

You see everyone (even Paris Hilton) has parasites, viruses and bacteria in their gut.  Now a healthy adult will get used to most of these little critters, but when you give them to someone else they have not built an immunity to them and now they get sick.  And because back in those days antibiotics were not yet available that little case of the Hershey squirts could turn deadly. 

Here is a little piece of history for you; in the year 1900 the average American died at the ripe old age of 47. And why did most people die?  Because they would drink contaminated water, get sick and crap themselves to death.  Eventually people realized they should probably do something to clean this stuff up before putting it back into the water cycle.  Gee, what a great idea. 

SOME SCIENTISTS SAY ONE OF THE GREATEST ADVANCES IN MODERN TIMES WAS THE ADVENT OF SEWAGE TREATMENT

To know why YOU need A PROPER SYSTEM you need to understand the cycle of water

In the old days...

In the early 1900’s the way people used water changed dramatically with the advent of indoor plumbing. 

The negatives with this were:

-Pools of sewage were dangerous to people/animals that came in contact with them.

-They were breeding grounds for mosquitoes and mosquitoes spread disease (more people have died from mosquito spread diseases than all of the wars combined).

-Sewage is high in nutrients (human waste, soaps) and when these nutrients eventually made it into a body of surface water it promoted excess plant and algae growth. 

-Those old wells were seldom filled-in properly and as a result were a direct conduit to the underground drinking water supplies. 

-It stunk. 

So people came up with the cesspool. 

The problem was these cesspools were so deep they were often dug right into the shallow water tables common throughout the world.  This meant sewage was contaminating those water supplies.  In areas with shallow wells the damage is obvious; you could be drinking what you (or your neighbors) had for dinner last night.  But another damage that few realized is those shallow water tables are what feed the surface waters.  This is called non-point pollution and by the 1960’s the damage to our surface waters was becoming glaringly apparent. 

Ask most people what the purpose of a septic system is and they will say, "To dispose of your wastewater" but they would be wrong.  The purpose of a septic system (or a sewage treatment facility) is to clean that wastewater before you put it back into the environment. 

Many community leaders were content to ignore the problem focusing entirely on growth (and they believed this was only a temporary problem because eventually sewage treatment facilities would be built).  However a few began to realize that something would have to be done and the smarter solution would be to improve what we had rather than waiting for the treatment facilities to catch-up.  The Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin conducted much of the research. 

The reason was economics. In these states lakes are prevalent and sport fishing/water recreation contributes to a large part of the local economy through tourism.  Many of these lakes were experiencing a noticeable drop in water quality and if the quality of lakes were allowed to continue to degrade tourists would look for other areas to spend their vacations.  For this reason these states made improving the performance of onsite systems a priority. 

Researchers knew going into it certain types of soils were excellent mechanical filters for removal of solids but as information was gathered and theories explored it was found the naturally occurring bacteria in top-soils performed another valuable service, they consumed the parasites and viruses present in excrement.  This along with electrostatic processes that took place was found to be an excellent method of purifying wastewater and the key was to keep the systems shallow.   

Mother nature had to come up with a way to deal with animal poop so she put bacteria in the top soil.  Pickup a tablespoon of dirt from your yard and there are more than 5 million bacteria in that one tablespoon of soil, and what do they eat...the nasty things in poop.  A septic system is just harnessing mother natures way of cleaning up after animals by utilizing those bacteria and doing the treatment process just under the surface. 

By the 1970’s the typical design of a modern septic system was comprised of 3 parts:

The tank-The tank is to allow settling, separation and storage of solids.

The drainfield-A typical drainfield is a trench (or bed) with 6” to 36” of gravel, plastic pipe is then placed on top of the gravel.  More gravel is placed over the pipe and covered with a permeable barrier to prevent topsoil from migrating down and clogging the gravel. Topsoil is then used to cover the trenches with a slight crown to encourage rain run-off.

As the effluent travels through this distribution pipe, gravity draws it through the gravel-bed where the large openings between the pieces of irregularly shaped gravel create pockets of oxygen that support aerobic bacteria.  These bacteria begin consuming the disease-causing pathogens. The drainfield also acts as a temporary reservoir allowing larger amounts of water to collect and slowly dissipate.  At the interface of the side-walls and bottom, a biomat of dead and living bacteria forms and slows the rate at which the effluent drains from the field.

The soil-Soil acts as a filter.  Bacteria also thrive in shallow soils and the 2 to 3 feet of soil under/around the drainfield act as a polishing filter removing any surviving pathogens.  A portion of the nutrients (nitrogen and phosphates) are wicked up by the plant life covering the field and more [nitrogen] is changed to a gas form and/or diluted. Approximately 30% of the liquid is returned to the atmosphere through evaporation/evapotranspiration. 

There were of course limitations to this process: although these systems worked fine under ideal conditions, not all sites are ideal.  High water tables, slow soils that won’t perk, soils that perk too fast (effluent needs to move through the soil slowly for adequate treatment to take place), a lack of soil, or a nearby body of water where more through nutrient removal is necessary were obstacles that needed to be overcome.    

And necessity being the mother of invention, people came up with solutions for these problems.  Today you have mound systems where soil is brought in and the drainfield is built on top of the existing site to deal with high water tables or slow perking soils.

There are also systems like sand or peat filters, aerobic systems, shallow drip irrigation and constructed wetlands that will provide the necessary treatment when the existing site won’t. 

Yes these alternative systems are more expensive, however they are still far cheaper than building a sewage treatment facility; the hook-up fee may only be 5 to 10 thousand dollars, but guess who gets to pay to build that plant and run those mains out to you...you do, and that will usually cost you 40 to 60+ grand!  Then you will be paying the city $800 to $1,500 a year to treat your wastewater.  A new septic system will generally run you $5,000 to $15,000 and $50 to $150 a year to run.  Do the math.      

Things are better but not perfect.  First remember those cesspools that were commonly used around the country; there are still millions of them that have been abandoned because the homes got the big pipe, but they never filled them in.  Now it is not a question of if they are going to collapse (concrete doesn’t last forever), it is when they are going to collapse, and if someone happens to be standing over it when it gives away there is a chance they will not get out alive. 

But wait, it gets more interesting because there are millions of homes still using cesspools waiting for that big pipe.  Fall into an active cesspool and your chances of getting out alive go down considerably.  Sucks to be you.

Another problem is states are finally getting with the program and over the last 10 years began re-writing their codes, but as usual when it comes to government run deals, inefficiency is common.  One common mishandling is grandfathering old systems.  People are buying homes with outdated system (that will not meet the codes that are on the books today) and are told, "Don't worry about that old septic system...it is grandfathered in so you never need to upgrade it."

However you can not grandfather in a health or environmental issue; if that were true you could still smoke in government buildings, offices and restaurants because, "I started smoking before the laws changed so I am grandfathered in." 

Point being, if you have a system that does not meet the current codes eventually you will have to update it.  Here are a few tips for you;

• Have your system inspected now and if it doesn't meet code ask the contractor to give you a ballpark bid on what it would cost to bring it up.  This way you know what you are looking at and can factor it into your future plans. 

• If you are selling your house, bring the system up to code first, then place a selling price on it and use that new system as a selling point. 

• If you are buying a home bring in your own septic contractor to inspect the system to make sure it meets code before you make an offer and if necessary factor that system into your offer. 

Do not make the mistake of blowing this off because that same guy that told you not to worry this week could be handing you a mandatory upgrade or vacate notice next week when he gets the order from above. 

And something else for you people that refuse to upgrade your systems; if you don't the city or county can use that refusal to justify building a treatment plant and force you to hook-up to them.  Now you are looking at laying out the huge dollars.  if it was just money and you don't care about spending it, fine. 

But it is not the money that is the worst of it...sewage treatment facilities are destroying our environment.  In the last 12 years the environmental/health damages to our shoreline, coastlines, fishing/shellfish beds has gone up almost 600%.  Our oceans are infected with red-tide outbreaks and the coral reefs are dissolving and one of the major contributors to this destruction/decay is the millions of gallons of partially treated sewage they are dumping into our oceans (but they are experts at covering this up).  The irony is, they convinced people they needed these plants to prevent this damage, now it is getting worse!  And a properly designed septic will actually prevent this damage.  

And for you homeowners that want to fight the city sewer expansion it is very simple; just make sure you all have code compliant systems and when the city says they are going to run the big pipe out to you (to prevent environmental damage) you can tell them you already took care of the pollution problem by installing state approved onsite systems and they run that big pipe right up their...well, you get the picture.  

When I can afford it I will be having some animation done that shows how treatment plants do more than pollute on a massive scale; we are talking about sinkholes and depleting our water supplies (just wait until you get the bill to start trucking in water to take a bath because your well ran dry).  In the meantime read this article to see why these expansion projects are taking place...you will get angry.