[Cob] Septic permits and Building Codes

[Marshall Reeves]

I lifve in a Texas county with extremely high clay content in the soil.  The 
only acceptable systems are aroebic ones which are similar to a normal septic 
system with the exception of having one extra tank that is chlorinated and 
then pumped out through sprinkler heads.  It costs about twice the price of a 
conventional system (5000.00 in our case) but supposedly the water pumped out 
of the sprinklers is safe for surface spraying if you continue your chlorine 
dosing.  We also have to be inspected quarterly to make sure that we are 
properly maintaining the system.  The annual maintenance (inspections) costs 
about 180.00.  The systems are sized and number of sprinkler heads are based 
on your water usage.  I'm fairly pleased with the system with the exception 
of the additional mowing required to keep my wet areas from turning into a 
swamp.
Marshall
 
On Monday 29 December 2003 23:30, Shannon C. Dealy wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Dec 2003, Taylor Publishing-DirtCheapBuilder wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> >  YOU may be careful, but trust me, there are some real slobs ou tthere
> > who don't care where human waste goes.  this is a public safety hazard,
> > especially if it contaminates streams, other people's drinking water,
> > farm water, etc...you can see how e-coli could be a problem downstream.
>
> [snip]
>
> There is a miscnception implied by the above which is that the
> conventional permited septic system is safe (or at least safer than any of
> the alternatives), they are not.  Average life of a drain field is about
> 20 years at which time your waste water will backup and start running
> over the surface of the ground (with all the contamination problems
> mentioned above), in addition, it is not uncommon for the outlet pipe on
> the septic tank to get plugged considerably more often with the same
> result (usually a result of not getting the tank pumped soon enough).
> It is also important to note that once your septic tank is pumped, in many
> jurisdictions, it is simply trucked to the waste water treatment plant for
> the nearest town, and many of these plants are responsible for large scale
> contamination of nearby rivers and lakes (poor design, overflow during
> rain storms, and inadequate understanding of what constitutes
> contamination).
>
> The safest solution is a constucted wetland designed for this purpose as
> there is nothing to maintain or fail, otherwise, some type of toilet which
> makes the waste completely safe to handle at the time it is removed (such
> as incinerating toilets and some of the better composting toilet designs),
> along with a separate grey water system.  Some commercial composting
> toilets are probably the best option for avoiding the cost of a full
> blown septic system in a fully permitted cob home, since some of the
> manufacturers have been willing to work with people and inspectors to get
> it through the permit process.
>
> NOTE: A primary cause of drain field failure is lint build up, mostly from
> laundry, which is another good reason to separate grey water and/or use
> a washing machine without an agitator (such as machines with horizontal
> drums which don't have agitators and generate far less lint).
>
> Okay, even Coblist Kahuna does an occasional off topic post.
>
> Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
> dealy at deatech.com     |          - Custom Software Development -
>
>                       |    Embedded Systems, Real-time, Device Drivers
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>
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