Alternative Septic System That You Can Install

A septic system is a wastewater treatment facility that is usually located underground. This type of system is commonly used in different rural areas that don’t have any centralized sewer systems.

Septic systems usually consist of a drain field, septic tank, or soil absorption field. The septic tank is the one that digests all of the organic matter and then separates the buoyant and solid matters from the wastewater. Examples of buoyant matters are grease and oils. Soil-based systems are the ones that help discharge the liquid(which is known as effluent) from inside the septic tank into different perforated pipes that are buried in a drain field, chambers, or any other special systems designed to release the effluent into the soil slowly.

Alternative systems mainly use pumps or gravity to help the septic tank effluent slowly fall through organic matter, sand, and constructed wetlands to neutralize or remove pollutants such as pathogens that can cause diseases, phosphorus, nitrogen, and other contaminants. Other alternative systems were designed to evaporate the wastewater or disinfect it before it gets discharged into the soil.

Types of Septic Systems

Septic system. size and design can vary a lot, from within your neighborhood to across the whole world, due to a lot of factors. Some of these factors include the soil type, site slope, lot size, household size, proximity to sensitive water bodies, local regulations, and weather conditions. Below are some of the most commonly used types of septic systems.

• Mound System

  Mound systems are what you should choose to install if the area has shallow soil depths, shallow bedrock, or high groundwater. The sand mound that was constructed contains the drain field trench. The effluent from the septic tank flows to the pump chamber where it will be pumped to the mound in different doses. The effluent gets treated when it is finally discharged into the trench and then filtered through the sand before it gets dispersed into the soil. Even though mound systems can be a good option for certain conditions, they require a considerable amount of periodic maintenance and space.

• Conventional System

The first one is a conventional system. It is a decentralized wastewater treatment system that consists of a drain field or a trench, and a septic tank. This type of system is usually installed in small businesses or single-family homes.

The stone/gravel drain field is a type of design that has already existed for decades. The name typically refers to the construction of the drain field. With this type of design, the effluent is pumped up from the septic tank into a shallow underground trench of gravel and stone. A fabric or a similar material is then placed on the top of the trench so that dirt, sand, and any other contaminants will not enter the clean stone. Effluent is then filtered through the ton and is then treated by microbes by the time it reaches the soil below the stone/gravel trench.

Stone/gravel systems are big in the overall footprint and may not be suitable for other residential sites.

• Chamber System

Drain fields that are graveless are widely used for more than 30 years in a lot of states and already have become a technology that is conventional because it replaces the gravel systems. Graveless systems take a lot of forms. This includes fabric-wrapped pipe, open-bottom chambers, and synthetic materials like expanded polystyrene media. These graveless systems can be created using recycled materials. Because of this, it offers a significant amount of savings in carbon footprints.

The Chamber system is an example of a graveless system. The chamber system serves as another type of design for the stone/gravel system. The primary advantage of a chamber system is the increased ease of construction and delivery. They are also well suited for areas that have high groundwater tables, in a vacation home, in an area where there are only a few amounts of gravel, or in other areas where other types of technologies like plastic chambers are always available.

This type of system typically consists of a series of chambers that are connected. The area that is around the chambers is filled with soil. The pipes are the ones that carry the wastewater from the septic tank into the chambers. While in the chambers, The wastewater then comes into contact with the soil. The microbes that are near the soil are the ones who will treat the effluent.

Always take into account the soil type, site slope, lot size, household size, proximity to sensitive water bodies, local regulations, and weather conditions when you are going to install a new septic system.

I’m Brian. I’m a writer living in Philadelphia, PA. I am a fan of technology, entrepreneurship, and writing. I’m also interested in education and homesteading. You can read my blog with a click on the button above.