Talk:Septic drain field

Untitled
This article is seriously lacking information. I neither have the time nor technical expertise to update this article, but as a septic designer, I know there is much missing. 24.97.230.243 (talk) 18:29, 8 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I have expanded the article, but there is always room for improvement. This method of waste disposal is used under an extraordinarily broad range of conditions, so it is important to specify those conditions (climate, drain field soils, depth to groundwater, type of waste, and variability of waste strength, volume, and composition) when describing successes or failures of innovative techniques. Thewellman (talk) 19:14, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Abandonment
On page 136 in Marsh's Landscape Planning: Environmental Applications, I read that old drain fields should be abandoned and new ones should be constructed elsewhere. These seems extremely unsustainable and hazardous since the old drain fields would likely be to hazardous and unstable to be developed on. Does that mean that mankind will have to simply leave old septic drain fields as an abandoned waste land or are there new usages for old drain fields that I am simply not aware of?

tiffli (talk)17:25, 16 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Septic drain fields have been regarded as a temporary wastewater disposal method. Over the long term, failure can be expected to result from accumulation of non-biodegradable fine solids. This type of failure would not involve hazardous materials. In the absence of inappropriate disposal, there would be no reason to assume an abandoned septic drain field would be any more hazardous than an under-street sewer; and future development would merely require routine sanitary precautions for biological waste. Drain field failure situations caused by overloading, rather than clogging by non-biodegradable fine solids, are often alleviated by constructing a new disposal field if land is available. The older leach field might be usable after a rest period in such cases, but replacement drain field construction practices often ignore that possibility to avoid the cost of plumbing for potential continued use. Increasing population density has been expected to encourage cost-effective installation of community sanitary sewers when land is no longer available for replacement septic drain fields. Thewellman (talk) 18:33, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 05:46, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Proposed merger with SEWAGE FARM
Oppose: These articles describe two distinctly different sewage disposal practices. This septic drain field article describes a subsurface disposal mechanism for liquid following anaerobic digestion of waste water in a septic tank. The sewage farm article describes use of wastewater (often with little or no pre-treatment) for irrigation and soil improvement of agricultural land. A septic drain field implies disposal, while the sewage farm implies re-use. Thewellman (talk) 19:50, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Oppose - two totally disparate things. A septic drain field is underground and takes settled and partially anaerobically degraded sewage liquors. A sewage farm, and I have experienced many such beasts, releases whole sewage along series of ditches and lagoons before the remaining poorly treated liquid exits into the nearest river. I would like to improve Sewage farm but finding sources is very difficult.  Velella  Velella Talk 20:48, 20 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Apologies, having bothered to read my own comment, I now realise I have nearly repeated verbatim what Thewellman has already said above - but  Thewellman said it better. Note to self - always read first and comment later.  Velella  Velella Talk  21:32, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Thank you very much for improving the Sewage farm article, Thewellman. And thanks to both of you for explaining the differences. Maybe these explanations should be added to the articles as well. That would help non-engineers to get an overview and better understanding of the matter. Feel free to remove the 'merge'-templates. --KaiKemmann (talk) 20:58, 22 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Done. Thewellman (talk) 17:23, 23 October 2016 (UTC)


 * remember to tag articles that touch on sanitation issues with the project tag WikiProject Sanitation (see at the top of this talk page). I have done that now for sewage farm.EvMsmile (talk) 22:27, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

OLD merge discussion is in other TRICKLING FILTER article talk page
For discussion regarding the trickling filter merge proposal, go here: Talk:Trickling_filter

DMahalko (talk) 19:31, 29 August 2008 (UTC)