[Cob] Septic permits and Building Codes

[Shannon C. Dealy]

As this really is off topic (unless someone wants to start using humanure
in their cob plasters) this is the last I'll say on the subject on
the list.

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003, Charmaine Taylor wrote:

> > The safest method may be wetlands, but the question was how to get a
> > building permit, and if septic is the only  mandatory requirement to
> > build,  then complying may be necessary.
>
> My septic system is over 60 years old, maybe more, and still working well. I
> don't believe that  (possibly  nationwide total) millions of drainfield
> systems like mine fail at 20 years,  pouring sewage on top the ground,  and
> thousands of systems in my own rural area are working fine, I don't recall a
> nationwide problem of failed septics or drainfields...can you point to any
> hard evidence that  what you stated is fact?

It was a study I read a few years ago, don't recall where it came from,
but I found it hard to believe to, so I asked a guy who had been doing
drain field and septic work for decades, and he indicated that it was
consistent with his experience, both the lint being a primary cause of
failure and the 20 year life.  It may be that the way they built them 60
years ago in your area is better than is the general case and it is
probably affected by alot of other things like weather, water table, and
soil composition.  As far as not hearing about the problem, I can't say,
most people when it starts to fail probably take out a home loan and pay
for a new one, so you aren't going to hear about those cases.  The only
way it's likely to be reported is if someone gets sick because of ground
water contamination AND it is traced back to one or more failed septic
systems.  I have on occasion seen articles in newspapers and on the
evening news (though not recently) about problems of this sort such as
major ground water contamination in a subdivision (where all houses were
about the same age), due to multiple drain field failures that had not
been dealt with.  Other cases that I can recall include a city being
forced to provide sewer services to a subdivision outside city limits
because all the septic systems were failing (big lawsuit to force the city
to do it, didn't make any sense to me), and in another case, a county in
an economically depressed area trying to find a solution to the problem of
drain field failures that were being ignored because the people couldn't
afford to replace them.  I think if you look for local data you will find
it happens far more often than people realize, but unfortunately I can't
point you to any definitive source of information.  For what it's worth,
two houses I have lived in have had septic problems which caused it to
backup and start coming up through the lid of the tank leaving a large
area of yard puddled in blackwater, and in another case I helped a
relative put in a new septic system when theirs failed, and this is just
what I have personally encountered in the last 20 years, prior to that and
for four out of the last 20 years I lived in the city.

>
> Locally the health code  (dept) requires tanks be pumped every 7 years, but I
> am sure many do not comply unless  interested selling or buying a house.

Interesting, if there are similar laws in this area, I have never heard of
them.  I suspect that unless local officials force it, the only time most
septic tanks get pumped is when the house is sold, or some problem occurs
with the system, and since most problems result in blackwater on the
ground or backups into the house, in either case a hazard is created
before each pumping.

If it overflows outside, the problem in many cases probably goes
unnoticed, since septic is normally only used on larger land parcels where
depending on where the drain field is, it is far more likely to go
unnoticed (out of sight, out of mind).

> contamination at the sewage dump site is always possible.
> I'm curious to see how bad the problem is in all areas, rural, semi rural ,
> etc. Please elucidate.

A major river near here regularly gets raw sewage dumped into it during
periods of heavy rain (causing overflows at the treatment plants in cities
all along the river), we then get the usual warning to stay out of the
water on the evening news, and even without the over flows, the river has
all sorts of problems due to the treated sewage dumped into it.  Of course
here in Western Oregon we never get heavy rain :-)

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
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