Aerobic vs. Anaerobic Septic Systems

[jinman]

But when I went from the house to the barn every morning to take care of my rabbits, I walked by about 10-15 feet from one of the sprinkler heads. Sure enough one morning, it came on just as I was walking by and I got a full broadside; soaked me good, but at least it just appeared to be clean water with no odor.

On July 4th, when I have a picnic, and any other time I have folks over for outdoors fun, I cover my sprinkler heads with 5 gallon buckets turned upside down. There is absolutely no smell when the sprinklers come on except for a slight chlorine odor. Nobody ever guesses what the sprinklers are if I don't tell them. I know it's technically not legal to cover the sprinklers with a bucket, but it's for a short time and totally solves the accidental spraying of visitors.

 

[Bird]

Jim, I never thought about the bucket idea, but I did learn to turn the breaker off while I was mowing so it wouldn't catch me by surprise.

 

[shaley]

Good stories guys. That's a hoot, Bird. I'd rig a button for the door to door salesmen.
We use a lot of peat moss aerobic units around here. Water table is usually about 36" below. No aerators just a tank full of peat moss with a pad of gravel on the surface. It's called a biological ATU vs. a mechanical ATU.

 

[charlz]

Slightly different aerobic system here.... same basic principle, pumping warm air through the second part of the tank but the water runs out to a somewhat traditional leach field instead of sprinklers. For the soils here this allows you to put in a 'flat' leach field versus having to build it up a few feet off the ground.

They make these systems large enough that they can handle something like 1,000 homes on a single system. Gets rid of the need to run sewer mains all over the place. That size systems were recently approved for use in Idaho. Dunno if any developments are using them yet. Now instead of needing to be near a city they can build their own mini-city where ever they choose.

 

[Ronbo]

Bird,

Those mandatory 4Xs a year inspections, along with that $150.00-$250.00 per year fee for those inspections is one of the problems.

In Texas you can now do your own inspection,unless the county specifically prohibits this. I am Brazoria county and inspect my own. Fort Bend county (where the law suit originated) spefically prohibits self inspections. I was trained by my septic inspector for $125.

 

[Bird]

In Texas you can now do your own inspection,unless the county specifically prohibits this. I am Brazoria county and inspect my own. Fort Bend county (where the law suit originated) spefically prohibits self inspections. I was trained by my septic inspector for $125.

Less than 11 years ago, if you had 10 acres or more, you could do anything you wanted to; install any kind of system, or no system, youself, no permits, nothing. In '95, I got a copy of the state law and it wasn't just a few pages; it was a book. But of course, it's always changing.

 

[shaley]

VA. is going to the manditory inspection schedule in 08. Va. Dept of Health rules with an iron fist around here. It'll be interesting to see the law suits fly.

 

[jinman]

In Texas you can now do your own inspection,unless the county specifically prohibits this. I am Brazoria county and inspect my own. Fort Bend county (where the law suit originated) spefically prohibits self inspections. I was trained by my septic inspector for $125.

I think you are right that doing your own inspection varies from county to county. In Wise County, you can do your own inspection if you go get certified by the manufacturer. However, the manufacturer will only certify you if you are one of their contractors, so it seems it's a moot point.

Also, I think the inspection here is once every 4 months (3 times per year) instead of 4 times per year. That's an easy one to get confused. I pay $200 per year for those three inspections and I don't mind it. It seems that once per year, they do a good clean-up and adjustment. The rest of the inspections are quick if the don't see anything wrong. Since we don't put our gray water through the system, our filters are clean and our tank has only about 1" of sludge. The inspector told us it's one of the cleanest systems he has ever seen.

Since inspectors may have to drive miles and miles to do these inspecitons, I feel like $200 is both fair and a good deal. I just can't believe the cost has not gone up due to fuel. Our garbage haul has doubled, but the septic inspection has stayed constant for four years. Something has got to change soon.

 

[JazzDad]

Our system has a timer on the sprayfield pump. It comes on only in the middle of the night, unless the power goes out and I forget to reset the clock.
We use the liquid chlorine, read bleach, and are glad we insisted on it when we got our system in 2002. Those special tablets are costly.
I am pleased with the aerobic system, overall. As mentioned by others; it was a higher initial cost, and higher maintenance. But with all this rain we have been a-flushin', when the neighbors have been crossing their legs.

 

[plowking]

The aerobic systems here in NH, can be done by different methods. They have to go to a leachfield for final disposal. The advantage to these systems is the reduction in size of square footage of field can be 40-60%. Reason is the quality of effluent is cleaner ,so the soil in the field doesn't have to do the purification, the air pump does that at the tank. Tanks here are three compartment with the air pump mounted on a post enclosed in a container. There are some companies that retrofit the aeration system to an existing tank, the pump is mounted on lid with nozzles, tubes, or bubblers inside tank. I have to get these turned off to pump the tank. On multicompartment tanks, I stay out of the pump section, but pump the main section and last section. I'm not aware of annual inspections here, but I will see the company, when I service the tanks. In some instances,I have gone into basement and called the number on label on the control panel for advice and to let them know I'm there. Different companies may want the tank cleaned a certain way. Bio-Con,Piranha, White Knight are some of the companies that come to mind. Sometimes the company will include paying me as part of their maintence agreement with the homeowner. NH does require a maintence agreement for areobic saystem. Some sytems can supposedly be save by converting to aerobic, the discharge from tank has higher oxygen content which is suppose to breakup the black in the field, that could be a part of the biomat. That is why new fields are vented, so the bed won't starve for air.