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To: reformedliberal

That explains alot. In my area, we use no such power assists for our septic systems. We only use pumps to charge the systems, gravity and rid-ex take care of evacuating them.

I thought everyone did it that way.


228 posted on 07/24/2011 5:50:26 PM PDT by papertyger
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To: papertyger

In my area, about 10 years ago or so, they went on a crusade to get rid of gravity systems. All it took was one system failure and the septic company had to notify the County Sanitarian. Almost no one got a permit to build a new gravity system. Everything had to be mound or pumps.

So far, it has been 10 years for us on the pump system and we have had one failure. We had drenching rains over a week or so and the ground was saturated. Everyone had cellar/basement flooding. The first tank had just been pumped, but still filled up and the power went out exactly at the same moment as someone flushed the toilet at 2 am. The result was a massive backup into the bathroom.

The circumstances were extreme and hopefully will not be repeated. We have a good generator and I will use the septic system when the generator is running. Otherwise, we just let the genny run to pump out the tank, limit toilet and other drain use and camp in our home until power is restored.

We had a dry well back when our system was gravity. It gave us some leeway in emergencies. The Sanitarian absolutely hates them, though and condemned all the old systems ASAP.

We have two parcels available for a drain field if we ever have to switch back to a gravity septic system. Rebuilding the old drain field would be a chore, but since it was done 50 years ago, it could be done again.


305 posted on 07/25/2011 4:19:27 AM PDT by reformedliberal
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