Designing a Septic System? Hold your breath...

We have our septic system design into the Albany County Health Department. We have gone through a couple of designs. There are several factors that had to be considered with our design. The soil on our property did not pass the percollation test. The soil is basically clay and does not drain well and we have a slope. Not good news for our budget. This means that we have to have a 5800+SF raised bed leach field, which also means we need to bring in top soil or fill and we also need a dosing chamber and pump. That probably equals an extra $20K

more after the jump...

We thought maybe we could avoid most of this by installing composting toilets. This is where the story gets interesting. The town says composting toilets are not allowed, the county says that they are... huh? The county also says that installing composting toilets would only diminish the size of the leach field by 10% and we could not dispose of our compost on our property, so we'd have to pay someone to take away our perfectly good compost. Then the next problem was they couldn't put the septic field where it was originally designed because of our gravel driveway. Since the soil may be compacted you cannot put a leach field there. They didn't really listen to us when we mentioned that the driveway circle was going to be taken up because a house was going there. They still wouldn't allow the septic system to be there.In any case we gave up. The new design will have the leach field the required 100ft from the well, on fairly level ground, with 12 inches of fill to cover 6000sf brought on site. Can't wait to get the quote.

original site plan

proposed site plan

Until recently it was not totally clear to me exactly how a septic system works , so follow the link for a basic explanation, for the uninitiated like me.If you're a DIY kinda person check out my new favorite site ECO-NOMIC they will hook you up smartly.

Comments

[Bob Eichinger]

I just saw your blog on designing your green septic system in Albany, NY from Nov. 2007. There are Alternative Secondary Wastewater Treatment Systems available that are green, highly efficient and that work well in difficult soils (clay) and on slopes etc. They have been approved and installed in numerous NYS Counties. If you are still interested please call me at #845-803-1571 (Dutchess County NY) or email me or visit our website. Thank you.

Bob Eichinger
Green Septic Solutions
Amenia, NY

[Baldomero]

Thanks Larry this is an excellent article. We are already in the process of having our system approved, we ended up moving the house site so that it is further up hill and it will gravity feed a mound. So if we get our system approved it will be sort of a half victory... We will still need to bring in sandy loam which will be pricey but unfortunately its the only solution the county would accept. We'll keep everyone updated as things progress. Thanks!!!

[Larry Cooke]

It may be too late, but you might want to read this article. I hope this will help you.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-Homesteading/2008-02-01/Truth-About-Septic-Systems.aspx

[Baldomero]

Hi Anna
I don't know what the exact rules are for greywater where we are. However greywater in our case will may only be used for the clothes washer to water plants. We may also have a rainwater collection tank if budget allows and low-flush toilets. Greywater would have been really nice but unfortunately it is out of our budget.
Baldomero

[Anna]

Hi again. Are you separating your graywater from your blackwater? Will NY allow you to use your graywater for irrigation? If so, you could you put it in an underground or above ground tank? I wonder if they treat gray water differently so your septic field is treated differently?

If they let you use your graywater, your house has to be plumbed for the different types-black and gray.

Nj won't allow you to use your gray water and requires a larger spectic field but less septic tank. anna www.green-talk.com