Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Quarry Contest 2010

Very good idea guys.

I'm going to need to talk to the landowner more, but I guess he's growing cattails in those areas to facilitate evaporation. It's some kind of "special" system. I'll find out more, I promise.

DIED = 34 1/4
Todd3138 = 31
ewest = 21 1/2
CJBS = 18
essup = 18
Omaha = 13
DD1 = 12
Youngblood = 9
Greg Grimes = 7
Burgermeister = 6
blair5002 = 6
JHAP = 5 15/16
Yolkie = 5 15/16
Sunil = 1 15/16
Dwight = 1.1 (Lost one point for bragging)
Brettski = 1

Bruce, are you saying he's growing cattails on top of the leach fields shown in the pictures? That's pretty interesting. Just musing out loud now, but given the discussions on trees that I've read on the forum, what about planting willows around your leach fields? I know there's a desire to keep tree roots away from a septic system to prevent the obvious potential for damage, but I wonder if a moisture soaking tree like that could be a feasible part of a leach field plan at some level or other.

Extra credit.

This is really only to help me out, but here goes.

Please give me some alternative to the traditional septic systems that most acreage owner use. My architect keeps talking about a 4,000 square foot "lateral field" that he doesn't want to deal with.

Use your internet guile to help me figure out if there's some simpler way to dispose of waste, without threat to the quarry's beautiful clear clean water.

How about an aeration system? A bit more expensive and, from what I understand, a greater maintenance requirement, but a much smaller footprint than traditional septic leach fields, and no need for periodic visits from the honey dipper to suck out the sludge that has built up.

Here's the site for a company that makes a small field product that might be of interest - Eljen

Don't be immediately put off by the fact that they use a technology called GSF - it stands for geotextile sand filter in this instance!

Or you just organize a commando team to go out at night and tap into your neighbor's septic system and remove all traces of the activity before morning.

Composting systems or an Anaerobic Digester for the solids and Bio filtration for the liquids. Defiantly would not take up 4000 sf, but...

My friend uses a sand mound high efficiency system. Not sure about all the details, but its foot print is very small.

Hey, Travis, what about that friend of your dad's who is off-the-grid? What does he use, or is that who you're talking about? I'd bet that guy has a functional solution.

I honestly have no idea what sort of septic system he uses? Not something that comes up in every day conversation... HAHA

I think that's what's meant when people say "we were just talkin' s***!"

We had a sand mound system at the past shop, which had a grease trap. Not very big in size, and functioned quite well, but the DEQ had three wells on the property to monitor ground water, which was clean!

i'm toast.

congratulations todd

my only knowledge of septic systems is very general.

i have a nieghbor who had no flat space, he installed an engineered stacked leach field on the steep hillside in front of his house, that was costly but had a very small footprint. because of the small footprint, a stacked system might be better for quarry lake groundwater protection

an alternative to standard systems....i think somebody touched on this already, but there are dozens of companies marketing biofilters, so that the waste water is cleaner by the time it reaches a conventional leach field.

as a side note, i've heard you should really not put grey water through septic systems (particularly from clothes and dish washers), because the detergents inhibit microbial breakdown. have you thought of that yet bruce? you might want to design grey water and sewage disposal separately.

good luck,

maybe died is still hoping to get a custom jig or two

Don't count yourself out yet, Dave! Bruce hasn't said what the extra credit is worth, nor has he accepted my answer!

You make a great point about the gray water and issues with all the anti-bacterial stuff we use - detergents, soaps, etc. - being bad for the essential bacteria in the system. I have done a little reading on septic over the past few months as I'm going to have to go that route if we eventually build at our farm and I'm trying to learn what I can about it. I believe that if you do use anti-bacterial products, you can still add beneficial bacteria to your system to overcome any loss that might occur. Still, if there's an efficient way to separate gray water and raw sewage, you are right on the mark that that would be the way to go.

Also with the grey water comes synthetic fibers. How long does it take for those to decompose?

Have you looked into a mound system?

Types of septic systems

Good point about the fibers - wasn't thinking about those. They probably have a half-life of about 1500 years!

I had actually never heard of a sand mound until this evening's posts in this thread, but I will definitely look it up. Thanks for those links, Scott.

No problem. There's a type of system that my buddy has down in Texas that uses a pump and a sprinkler system to distribute the clean water, but I can't remember what type of system that it's called. It only turns on the pump for the sprinklers when the tank is full, and only at a certain time of day that can be programed into the system.

Wow. Sure sounds like there are a bunch of options. I just have to worry about eventually getting the best one for the proximity to our ponds so we don't get any unwanted side effects. From my reading so far, I don't think it will be an issue, but that concern remains in the back of my mind and will drive a lot of our decision making when the time comes.

i just had to think about it for a little bit,

here is your answer bruce, cheap, easy, and SAFE!

ROFLOL!!!!

I didn't realize you had stopped by my place, Dave!

My favorite part of my buddy's hunting camp... Boy that splash back is cold on the tush!

i didnt even need to search the internet for that, its on my property,

they can also have creature comforts, notice the wood stove pipe on the rear part of roof,

plus they provide habitat, if you look closely, that is a canada goose nesting a little lower down on the roof

I thought you were joking at first!