Grey Water Disposal

[zmountaineer]

When I built my house I contracted to have a water softener put in. The same company had 2 different types of softeners. One had a scheduled regen every night, the other was a 2 tank on demand system (kinetico). I went with the kinetico and had a separate daylight drain put in just for the regens. I was told simply that there was no need to add extra water to the septic system. I wish that I would have just went ahead and plumbed in my kitchen and laundry room drains into it as well.

 

[MossRoad]

When I built my house I contracted to have a water softener put in. The same company had 2 different types of softeners. One had a scheduled regen every night, the other was a 2 tank on demand system (kinetico). I went with the kinetico and had a separate daylight drain put in just for the regens. I was told simply that there was no need to add extra water to the septic system. I wish that I would have just went ahead and plumbed in my kitchen and laundry room drains into it as well.

In many places, it's not legal to dump the laundry room to daylight anymore, as your underwear might have poop in it.

In our location, it was quite common to have the laundry just dump out in a rock field right outside of your house! The previous owner of our house was quite the do-it-yourselfer.... unfortunately. :laughing:

He remodeled the house and moved the bathroom to the other side and put the kitchen where the bathroom was. He piped the kitchen sink into the old septic system and installed a new septic system for the bathroom. Then he buried a couple barrels and an oval horse tank upside down and piped the washing machine into that. So there's three separate systems.

I found the horse tank when my tractor caved it in and my tire sank in the hole. It was dry as a bone. No wash water was getting to it. I found two more sinkholes where the barrels were burried, and replaced the barrels with plastic.

I found the kitchen system when the yard started sinking. I dug out the sinkhole and found a suitcase full of empty ketchup bottles, an old baby stroller, and various boxes of plastic jugs over the access hole to the tank. WHY??!! :laughing: The pipe between the septic tank and drywall had collapsed, causing the tank to overfill and plug up with kitchen waste. I ended up piping the kitchen over to the new septic system.

Then there's the "mystery pipe" that the basement wash sink drains into in the floor in the basement. He said it'll take 4 sink loads of water before it backs up, then you have to wait a day.... again, WHY??!! :laughing: No one knows where it goes. Fortunately, we don't use that sink very often at all. Maybe 5 times in the last 20 years. But WHY??!! do people do these things. :confused3: :laughing:

 

[4570Man]

In many places, it's not legal to dump the laundry room to daylight anymore, as your underwear might have poop in it.

In our location, it was quite common to have the laundry just dump out in a rock field right outside of your house! The previous owner of our house was quite the do-it-yourselfer.... unfortunately. :laughing:

He remodeled the house and moved the bathroom to the other side and put the kitchen where the bathroom was. He piped the kitchen sink into the old septic system and installed a new septic system for the bathroom. Then he buried a couple barrels and an oval horse tank upside down and piped the washing machine into that. So there's three separate systems.

I found the horse tank when my tractor caved it in and my tire sank in the hole. It was dry as a bone. No wash water was getting to it. I found two more sinkholes where the barrels were burried, and replaced the barrels with plastic.

I found the kitchen system when the yard started sinking. I dug out the sinkhole and found a suitcase full of empty ketchup bottles, an old baby stroller, and various boxes of plastic jugs over the access hole to the tank. WHY??!! :laughing: The pipe between the septic tank and drywall had collapsed, causing the tank to overfill and plug up with kitchen waste. I ended up piping the kitchen over to the new septic system.

Then there's the "mystery pipe" that the basement wash sink drains into in the floor in the basement. He said it'll take 4 sink loads of water before it backs up, then you have to wait a day.... again, WHY??!! :laughing: No one knows where it goes. Fortunately, we don't use that sink very often at all. Maybe 5 times in the last 20 years. But WHY??!! do people do these things. :confused3: :laughing:

I had a flip house that had a washing machine in the basement and the basement was lower than the septic tank. So that’s one reason to do it.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have put the washing machine waste out a hill side for years and have a buried stone pit for the softener discharge. I understand, that stuff can destroy the steel reinforcing of the septic tank.

 

[MossRoad]

Can you find any documented cases of the steel reinforcing in a septic tank being destroyed by water softener discharge water?

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have never looked. Maybe, some years ago, I recall hearing a horror story. But, it kind of makes sense to me, that salt water would play havoc with the rebar, just like it does on bridges.

But also, what of the effects of the salt on the well-being of the beings that are supposed to live happily in the septic tank.

I just finished cleaning my Piro-Ceram Fireplace Glass in the kitchen sink with high strength Industrial cleaner (A job I always look forward to) and scoop that water out of the sink in a bucket to dispose of it outside. What a pain, but I don't want that chemical in the septic either.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I'm not going to post my jurisdiction, but I've read the regulations and know for a fact that grey water disposal anywhere other than a sewer or septic system is forbidden. As far as enforcement, it will only become an issue when the house is eventually sold, which, God willing, won't be until my wife and I are six feet under in our very own "zone of disposal." Even if we did find ourselves having to sell the house for some reason it would be easily put back to the way it was with a few fittings and some lengths of PVC. The County Health Department would be responsible for any type of enforcement, and the only way they find out about this type of stuff is when they are doing inspections for new installs or repairs, (not happening anytime even remotely soon) or when investigating complaints-Its not as if I'm looking to dump it onto my neighbor's lawn. I'm a 1/4 mile off of the road in the woods, so there is no one to see anything or to complain.

Interestingly, I just went back through my files and found the septic plan with our closing documents. In it, the engineer that designed the system specifically stated "Garbage disposals and water softening equipment shall NOT be discharged to this system." In doing a bit of research I found that I can buy a lint filter for the washing machine, which is my biggest worry (the system should be adequately sized to handle the water), but it sounds like I really need to get the water softener discharge out of there ASAP.

If it is forbidden why insist on doing it? Your septic will handle it fine. Please, respect your environment and mine...

 

[BigBlue1]

I have never looked. Maybe, some years ago, I recall hearing a horror story. But, it kind of makes sense to me, that salt water would play havoc with the rebar, just like it does on bridges.

But also, what of the effects of the salt on the well-being of the beings that are supposed to live happily in the septic tank.

I just finished cleaning my Piro-Ceram Fireplace Glass in the kitchen sink with high strength Industrial cleaner (A job I always look forward to) and scoop that water out of the sink in a bucket to dispose of it outside. What a pain, but I don't want that chemical in the septic either.

When something sounds like it could be a problem 'in theory' but it doesn't actually show up as an issue you kind of have to go with the 'what actually happens' side of things. I posted above about my 14 year old home with a perfectly functioning septic system. I also grew up in a house built in the 50's (I lived there 1970-1989) that had a softener discharging into a septic system that was never an issue. In my almost 50 years I've never heard of water softeners wrecking septic systems. If you know of a bunch of cases where that has happened please share, but otherwise this seems to be a case of reality not matching theory. Sometimes life is too short to worry about all the possible things that could happen.

Rob

 

[Industrial Toys]

I did some googling and found no evidence that salt water will destroy a septic tank. I'm guessing in the absence of oxygen, it isn't an issue. Aside from that, basically everything isn't good for your septic system though, it seems. And as I suspected, many and probably most systems aren't doing what they were idealy designed to do.

 

[TSO]

The water softener in my house (existing system from when I purchased the house, built in 1980) ... The softener discharge is plumbed to my sump pump discharge pipe, which runs downhill, under ground, about 75 feet into the woods (on my property) where the pipe pops back up to the surface. Not sure why they chose that method, but hey, at least the salt discharge prevents any possibility of my sump pump output line freezing over LOL.

My septic tank is a hole different story. The line runs to my tank which is about 20 foot off the corner of the house, then from there flows about 200 ft downhill to a secondary tank which has a lift pump, which pumps it another 500 ft uphill to a front pasture where the septic field is.

Again, not exactly sure why they planned it that way. One guess is that the area around the house was completely covered with trees when I bought the place, and they were trying to hide the house in the woods. I have since cleared that area out so it's open, but maybe they didn't want the field near the house because of all the trees ?