All you cesspool owners.

ognum

We have a septic at out holiday home, we have never had it emptied in 10 years, it is built 100 ft above sea level on the side of the cliff and fluid slowly oermiates out. We never put bleach down the Wcs and rely on the natural bacterial breakdown of waste.

All rain water is collected and stored in a 20,000 gallon water cistern and used for showers, flushing toilets, swimming pool etc.

System works well.

teneighty

G_M wrote: »

Even if run-off from the roof goes to a seperate soakaway, logic dictates than in heavey rain a certain amount of surface water (or rising water table0 will end up in the cesspool.

A cesspit should be a sealed waterproof chamber to stop the nasties leaking out and contaminating the ground. If ground or surface water is finding its way into the cesspit it has failed. It needs to be re-lined or replaced. I wouldn't eat any home grown veg from your garden if I were you! But the roses are probably doing very well.

snowscreamer

We haven't noticed this with our cesspit yet (moved in this April). We'll see how it goes over the next few months! Been having it emptied once every 7 weeks. Tank is 2000 gallons / 9000 litres.

snowscreamer

Although on the flip side our next door neighbour who has a septic tank told us if there is heavy rain their garden can get waterlogged due to septic tank drainage into soakaway + heavy rain + high water table.

wymondham

Am I the only one who clicked on this thread expecting ranting and raving?

ruggedtoast

I wish I had a cesspool pit.

Davesnave

teneighty wrote: »

A cesspit should be a sealed waterproof chamber to stop the nasties leaking out and contaminating the ground. If ground or surface water is finding its way into the cesspit it has failed. It needs to be re-lined or replaced.

Not necessarily.

If the inspection chambers are of the old, brick built type, they may have failed, allowing ground water into the system at quite prodigious rates when the water table is high.

I know this, because I'm about to replace one of mine which has this fault. It's not even that old, but the people who build these things are often not very skilled.

Modern, plastic inspection chambers shouldn't fail like this.

It's debatable whether septic tank systems are really suitable for many locations in the UK, especially after the last two winters. I can't comment on cesspits, but I'd imagine they have similar problems.

troubleinparadise

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I wish I had a cesspool pit.

It certainly adds another dimension to domestic life, and you'd be surprised at how much time they take up!

agrinnall

Davesnave wrote: »

It's debatable whether septic tank systems are really suitable for many locations in the UK, especially after the last two winters. I can't comment on cesspits, but I'd imagine they have similar problems.

I wouldn't deny your right to debate the issue, but I wonder on what basis you think there is an issue? I moved this year from a house in the Highlands that experienced very bad (cold and/or wet) weather over several of the winters that I was there, and in the 10 years I owned it there was no problem with the septic tank and it was not emptied at all (serving 6 properties).

Davesnave

agrinnall wrote: »

I wouldn't deny your right to debate the issue, but I wonder on what basis you think there is an issue?

This, mainly:

Section H2 of the Building Regulations and the BS 6297 2007: "The trial hole should be a minimum of 1M² and 2M deep, or a minimum of 1.5M below the proposed drainage field pipework. The groundwater table should not rise to above 1M of the invert level of the proposed effluent drainage pipes"

Many sites would fail this preliminary test, so would not be allowed to install a septic tank system today.

While septic tanks may 'work' for you and for me, they may not work for the environment, which is why tougher regulation is now in place.

Of course, there is a historic legacy, which also 'works,' if one doesn't fancy spending out on a modern water treatment system!