Help> Illegal Drain problems

silvercar

There is no foul drainage system. There is no drainage system for the entire village.

Hope there is also no swimming in the village pond!

clutton_2

so what happens to the poo ????

silvercar

clutton wrote: »

so what happens to the poo ????

:rotfl:

the theory of the cess pit is that the poo stays in the cess pit and the liquid drains away, preferably into sewers.

The cess pit is then emptied every year or so.

If the cess pit has a leak then the poo escapes, into the rivers in this case!

Sounds very rural and not for me, but I understand that when it works it works well.

david29dpo

Slightly wrong if you forgive me. A cess pit has no outlet. ALL matter and water is pumped out on a regular basis. Not used much now. A septic tank has an outlet for waste water, going into a soak away. The mater turns to a butter type paste over time in the tank and is pump out every 12 months or so. A biotank is similar to a septic tank but the water out is nearly drinkable and can go into streams etc.

silvercar

Thanks for the explaination, still think it all sounds a bit "third world".

So is it still legal to allow water to flow from a septic tank to a soak away, given that the soak away water will eventually end up in streams and rivers?

takoo

Hi All

If there is space for a reed bed between the "outlet" or overflow and the stream etc you may be able provide a suitable water cleansing approach in rural areas.

However I can't speak to the legality of such a proposal but have heard of them being installed.

Takoo

Debt_Free_Chick

I always get mixed up - ours is a septic tank. It's actually not a tank at all, but three brick "chambers" (called tumble rooms). The solids (ugh!) pass through the chambers and, in theory, they're retained there to be broken down by bacteria until there's just a sludge left.

But there is no mains drainage at all in our village, so the same system takes all waste water from the property - including the bath, washing machine etc. So there is plenty of water going through the system too.

The water outlet from the septic tank criss-crosses the field, with the intention that the waste water percolates into the surrounding field. It doesn't go directly into the river. And the river is more than half a mile away, anyway so it would only be in exceptional circumstances that any would end up there. I think it's more likely that the waste travels down into the ground, rather than down and North, towards the river.

Systems such as ours cannot be illegal, surely? As everyone in the village has something similar. And any new development would have no option but to install either a cesspool or septic tank as there is no option to connect to the mains.

Indeed, there is planning guidance for new developments and the Environment Agency has assessment guidance which suggests that a septic tank or cesspool are still feasible for new developments.

So .... the OP's system may be OK. It should have been approved by Planning/Building Control or even the Environment Agency.

Suggest he looks at the relevant planning consents, in the first instance. Although, one would have expected it to go to the mains drainage system, if there is one

david29dpo

Some councils will still allow a new septic tank on a new build, normally if its more than about 3 km from a stream. Yours is not illegal, by the time the contents of the soak away reach a stream or river, it will clean anyway. Most people love there tanks. Water is cleaned through the ground which plants love, for free. The pumped out waste can be used as fertilizer and it only costs me £50 a year! Beat that on mains!

suebfg

Hi,

Hope this helps - recently went through this process. You need to have a permit from the Environment Agency to discharge to a watercourse - this is a legal requirement but does not seem to be being picked up by conveyancers. My experience is that the EA are concentrating on large pollutants such as companies - there are still plenty of households with septic tanks in our area who have not obtained the permits.

If you decide to apply, the process takes around 4 months, although the only action you generally undertake is to complete an application form (you would need to complete a shared application with the other houses sharing the tank I believe). I would recommend you check though with the EA re whether a septic tank is likely to be granted a permit - my understanding is that sewage treatment plants are the preferred option due to better treatment of the effluent. It would be an expensive exercise to replace an existing septic tank with a sewage treatment plant because of the fact that it is an existing installation (the cost of the sewage treatment plant is small compared with the installation costs).

This is my opinion only: chances are you'll get away with it if you do nothing - but when you come to sell your house, a clued up conveyancer may want to know where the permit is.