Who Pays For Septic Repairs In Nc
The septic system is an effective, long-standing method for collecting, treating, and disposing of sewage from rural and suburban homes and businesses. Septic systems are used in every canton in Northward Carolina. Nearly 50 percent of the state's homes accept them. This fact canvass will answer some typical questions near septic systems and their maintenance.
Why Use a Septic Organization?
Septic systems are used when centralized sewage treatment plants are not accessible in a community. They safely treat and dispose of wastewaters produced in the bath, kitchen, and laundry. These wastewaters may contain disease-causing germs and pollutants that must exist treated to protect human being health and the environment. Septic systems are unremarkably a permanent solution to wastewater handling and disposal. Therefore, they must be properly used, operated, and maintained by the homeowner to assure the long-term functioning of these systems. Even when used every bit a temporary wastewater handling solution until sewer lines are extended to a community, special intendance and maintenance are needed for septic systems and then that they don't pose a take a chance to public health or the environment.
What Is a Septic Organisation?
Several different types of septic systems are available, each with its ain design. The traditional, conventional arrangement is the i that has been nearly commonly used in Northward Carolina up until the past decade (Figure 1). It consists of three principal parts: the septic tank, the drainfield, and the soil beneath the drainfield.
The septic tank is a watertight container about 9 feet long and v feet tall. Information technology is buried in the ground just exterior the home. The tank is normally precast from reinforced concrete, although tanks made from plastic or fiberglass may exist seen on occasion. While a tank is typically designed with a 1,000-gallon liquid capacity, its size is legally determined by the number of bedrooms in the dwelling house. The tank temporarily holds household wastes and allows a modest amount of pretreatment to take place (Figure 2).
Effigy ane. A conventional septic arrangement.
Figure 2. A two-compartment septic tank.
What Takes Place in the Septic Tank?
All of the wastewaters from the home should flow into the septic tank. Even waters from the shower, bathtub, and washing machine can contain disease-causing germs or ecology pollutants. Every bit wastewater flows into the tank, the heavier solid materials settle to the bottom (forming a sludge layer), and the lighter greases and fats bladder to the top (forming a scum layer). The tank'southward primary purpose is to retain the solids. Afterwards a retention time of about two days, the liquid portion (the sewage effluent) flows out of the tank through the outlet pipage. The retention fourth dimension is necessary for separation of the solids from the liquid and for anaerobic digestion of the solids to brainstorm in the septic tank.
An outlet baffle (or a sanitary tee at the outlet stop) prevents solids from flowing out with the liquids. Newer septic systems installed since 1999, however, include an effluent filter in the septic tank. These are installed in place of the sanitary tee at the outlet stop of the septic tank (in the second compartment shown in Figure 2).
What Happens in the Drainfield and the Soil?
The purpose of the drainfield is to deliver the liquid sewage effluent to the soil. The existent treatment of the wastewater occurs in the soil beneath the drainfield. Sewage effluent flows out of the tank every bit a cloudy liquid that still contains many disease-causing germs and ecology pollutants. Effluent flows into the perforated pipe in the trenches, passes through the holes in the piping, and so trickles down through the gravel to the soil (Figure 3). There are as well "gravel-less" trenches used where plastic louvered chambers, polystyrene aggregate, tire bit aggregate, or large diameter pipes are used in place of the gravel aggregate. These materials provide a void infinite in the trench to allow distribution of the effluent to the trench bottom. Every bit sewage effluent enters and flows through the ground, soil particles filter out many of the leaner that tin can cause diseases. The soil adsorbs some of the smaller germs, such every bit viruses, until they are destroyed. The soil can also retain certain chemicals, including phosphorus and some forms of nitrogen.
A special zone, called a biomat, forms in the upper 1 to 6 inches of the soil at the soil/trench interface just below the trench lesser. This biomat zone is useful. It helps remove many of the germs and chemical pollutants. If the solids accumulating in the septic tank are never pumped out, however, they tin menstruum into the trenches and accumulate into an intensive biomat that becomes as well thick. When that happens, the biomat completely clogs the soil and does not permit the sewage effluent to flow out of the trench. An improperly maintained system will fail and cause untreated sewage to completely make full the trenches and come out on elevation of the ground or back up into the home in its plumbing system.
Figure three. Wastewater treatment and disposal in the soil.
Where Can a Septic System Be Used?
A centralized sewer organization with a big sewage treatment plant normally discharges treated wastewater into a body of water. On the other paw, a septic system depends on the soil around the dwelling house to treat and dispose of sewage effluent (Figure 3). For this reason, a septic system can be used only on soils that will adequately absorb and purify the effluent. If a septic system is installed in soil that cannot do so, the effluent will seep out onto the soil surface overlying the drainfield or support into the abode. In addition to causing an unpleasant smell, this untreated sewage can pose health problems.
In some cases where the soils do not adequately absorb the wastewater, the toilets and sinks might not drain freely. If the soil tin can absorb the effluent, but not care for it, or if the trenches are installed straight into groundwater or bedrock, the sewage may contaminate the groundwater. Because the underlying groundwater serves as the source of drinking h2o for your well or possibly your neighbors' wells (Effigy 3), it is very important that the system be installed in the proper soil conditions and that the septic system is correctly used, operated, and maintained.
What Kinds of Soil Weather condition Are Best Suited to a Conventional Septic Arrangement?
Gently sloping, thick, permeable soils with deep water tables make the best sites for the traditional, conventional septic system and simple modifications of it. The soil should be a uniform dark-brown, yellowish, or vivid ruby color. It should not have spots of gray colors that often indicate the soil becomes excessively moisture or that groundwater comes up shut to the ground surface during the wet times of the year. The soil texture should be neither too sandy nor too clayey, and it should have good aggregation, or structure (that is, a handful of the soil should easily suspension apart into small-scale aggregates).
Areas that are unsuitable for conventional septic systems have rock close to the surface, very gluey clays, soil layers that restrict the downward flow of h2o, or areas with shallow groundwater. These factors would foreclose a conventional septic system from working properly.
What About Other Types of On-Site Systems That Are Alternatives to the Conventional System?
Other types of on-site systems are sometimes used on sites where the soil is not suited to a conventional system. Where soils are too wet or too shallow for the conventional organisation, the drainfield might exist placed very shut to the ground surface in the upper layers of the soil. In some wet soils, bogus drainage around the septic arrangement lowers the level of the shallow water table. On some clayey soils that have a thick sandy surface, the low-pressure level pipe (LPP) system provides an alternative.
On some soils that are not deep enough to provide acceptable treatment of the sewage effluent, it may be possible to employ an advanced pretreatment unit of measurement to supplement the soil's treatment capacity. Examples are stock-still media biofilters such as a sand filter, peat filter, fabric filter, or porous cream biofilter or mechanical aerobic treatment units that chimera air into the sewage itself. Most of these pretreatment units are installed between the septic tank and drainfield. They provide better purification of the wastewater than is provided by the traditional septic tank solitary. Some sites may need more sophisticated methods of distributing the sewage effluent within the drainfield itself using a force per unit area manifold, LPP, or baste irrigation system. These systems utilize pumps, special controls, and specially designed pipe networks that can ameliorate the wastewater treatment in the soil. In other situations, it may be cost effective to collect the wastewater from several homes in an surface area or subdivision by using a cluster organisation. This type of system has a drainfield located in a common area within the all-time-suited soils in the tract of land. These newer and more sophisticated types of on-site system options can oft provide a ameliorate wastewater treatment solution for a item edifice lot, or a tract of land, than either the traditional, conventional septic tank system or large-scale, centralized public sewers.
How Do I Know if My Site Is Suitable for a Septic System?
North Carolina has more than 400 different kinds of soil, and a 1-acre lot can incorporate several different soil types. Because many of these soils are unsuitable for conventional septic systems and even unsuitable for more than advanced or alternative on-site systems, you should always obtain an improvement permit (I.P.) earlier purchasing a lot that you intend to build on. You will submit an application and a site plan to the county health section. The ecology health specialist (sanitarian) will carry a comprehensive soil and site evaluation and either result or deny the allow. If an I.P. can be issued, y'all will also need to obtain a construction potency (C.A.) before a building allow can exist issued.
If you are interested in developing a tract of land to subdivide, you should hire a licensed soil scientist to conduct preliminary evaluations and advise y'all on the location of suitable soils and lot configuration. You can obtain additional information from the Cooperative Extension publication AG-439-12, Investigate Earlier Yous Invest.
How Large Is a Typical Drainfield?
Usually, the drainfield for a home can fit within the front yard or the backyard of a typical 1-acre home site. Sometimes smaller lots tin be used. The precise surface area requirements will depend upon the kinds of soils at the home site, the size of the house (the number of bedrooms), the topography of the lot, and the blazon of on-site organisation used at that place. A site with clayey, slowly permeable soils needs a larger drainfield to absorb the sewage effluent than does a site with sandy, permeable soils. A home with 5 bedrooms will need a larger tank and drainfield surface area than a home with three bedrooms. A rental property at the embankment may require a larger drainfield than a similar-sized permanent residence with the same number of bedrooms. A dwelling using one of the newer, more advanced types of on-site technologies may be able to use a smaller area for the drainfield than if a conventional septic system is installed. Adequate land expanse must be available to achieve acceptable setback distances from any nearby wells, springs, streams, lakes, or other bodies of h2o located either on the lot or off-site.
There also must be enough expanse to install a second organisation, called a replacement system, in case it is always needed. This replacement area (sometimes called a repair area) besides must have acceptable soil and site conditions and must be left undisturbed and bachelor for system replacement. Be aware that the type of on-site system required for use in the repair area could exist a completely different, more than sophisticated type of on-site system. Hence, if that repair area is ever needed, you might have to install a more than expensive system than the original organisation installed when the lot was commencement developed.
What Legal Requirements Regulate Septic Systems?
State law requires that soils be evaluated by the local health section and that an I.P. and a C.A. be issued earlier house construction begins or the septic system is installed. The I.P. allows the site to be used, while the C.A. determines what blazon of system must exist installed. Sometimes these are issued at the same time by the health department. An I.P. is adept merely for five years unless information technology is renewed, or unless it is issued nether special atmospheric condition for a lot that has been professionally surveyed. If a permanent I.P. is issued, then you lot have some express guarantee that the lot tin be used (even if the state rules modify), assuming that the conditions on the lot or the intended employ don't change. Nevertheless, the blazon of system that will be required as well as home size and location are not bodacious until the C.A. is issued. Contact your local health section to exist sure that yous follow the correct procedures and that you lot are fully aware of the limitations that will protect your investment. As well, the installation must be canonical by the health section and an operation permit (O.P.) must be issued by the health section earlier electrical service can be permanently continued to the home and the septic system put into utilize.
Once the habitation has been occupied and the arrangement put into use, yous volition demand to contact the county health department if you plan to add on to the home, install a pool, build an outbuilding, or appoint in activity that requires a edifice permit. Start, obtain an authorization from the county health section to make sure that the septic arrangement and repair area remain intact and are properly sized for the proposal.
What Maintenance Is Needed?
Both the septic tank and the drainfield must be properly maintained for the standard conventional septic system. With conscientious maintenance, the system should work correctly for many years. Such maintenance begins with h2o use and waste disposal habits. Your family unit volition determine which materials enter the organisation, and so you should plant family unit rules for proper use and maintenance. The suggestions outlined in the box will salve y'all anguish and money when practical to about conventional systems.
If your arrangement has an effluent filter, it volition need checking and servicing approximately every 2 to 3 years. While this could be done by a homeowner, it is a messy, unpleasant chore and in that location are potential condom issues considering of the germs in the sewage and toxic gases. For most people, information technology would exist appropriate to hire a company that specializes in septic system maintenance and service to inspect and clean the effluent filter.
Special types of pretreatment units and drainfield distribution technologies as well must be carefully maintained for the more avant-garde, newer technologies described earlier. These newer technologies will be more expensive to operate and maintain than the traditional, conventional septic system. Most advanced on-site and cluster wastewater treatment systems require regular inspections and professional maintenance. Enquiry conducted in North Carolina has shown that about forty to 50 percent of the advanced systems will fail within 6 years if this maintenance is non provided. Therefore, in North Carolina, a professionally trained, state-certified "subsurface arrangement operator" hired by the homeowner is required by the O.P. to provide the needed inspections and maintenance for advanced technologies. For more information about these requirements, contact your local health department or the state Water Pollution Control Systems Operator Certification Committee.
Note, even so, that private homeowners are immune to take the same training programs and state licensing exam as the professional person operators. If they laissez passer the exam, they tin can operate their ain system by themselves. Because this generally is non done, most homeowners will have to pay for this service if they accept i of these more advanced technologies.
Regardless of whether a professional operator is hired, information technology is the habitation-owner'south responsibility to assure proper apply, inspection, performance, and maintenance of any type of on-site wastewater system.
- Exercise not put too much water into the septic organization; typical water use is most 50 gallons per twenty-four hours for each person in the family unit.
- Do not add materials (chemicals, sanitary napkins, applicators, and and so on) other than domestic wastewater.
- Restrict the use of your garbage disposal.
- Do not pour grease or cooking oils downwardly the sink drain.
- Brand a diagram showing the location of your tank, drainfield, and repair area.
- Install a watertight riser over the septic tank to simplify access.
- Have the effluent filter in the septic tank cleaned periodically by a professional.
- Have the solids pumped out of the septic tank periodically.
- Maintain adequate vegetative comprehend over the drainfield.
- Continue surface waters away from the tank and drainfield.
- Proceed automobiles and heavy equipment off the system.
Will I Need to Pump the Tank?
Yes. After a few years, the solids that accumulate in the septic tank should exist pumped out and disposed of at an approved location. If not removed, these solids will somewhen overflow, accrue in the drainfield, and clog the pores (openings) in the soil.
This blockage severely amercement the drainfield. Although some clogging of soil pores slowly occurs fifty-fifty in a properly functioning system (the biomat described earlier), excess solids from a poorly maintained tank can completely close all soil pores and so that no wastewater can flow into the soil. The sewage effluent volition and then either back upwards into the house or period across the ground surface over the drainfield. If this happens, you may need to construct a new drainfield on a different part of your lot. Pumping the septic tank after the soil drainfield has become completely clogged will not rejuvenate the system. It will provide merely a few days of reprieve until the tank fills up again. Once the soil has become completely clogged, it is unremarkably necessary to install a new drainfield or an advanced pretreatment unit, or both. This can take a significant negative effect on your landscaping and g, as well equally being expensive. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure with septic systems.
How Will I Know When to Pump the Tank?
The frequency with which you volition need to pump depends on 3 variables: the tank size, the corporeality of water used past your family, and the solids content of your wastewater. If y'all are unsure most when to have the tank pumped, have a professional person operator observe the rate of solids accumulation in the tank each year. He or she tin can clean and replace the effluent filter cartridge in the tank at the same time. The tank should be pumped if the sludge layer at the bottom of the septic tank has built upward to inside 25 to 33 percent of the tank's liquid chapters or if the scum layer in the tank is more than iv to 6 inches thick. Therefore, a typical 1,000-gallon tank with a four-foot liquid chapters should exist pumped when the solids achieve ane-foot thick in the tank bottom. If the tank is non hands accessible and the rate of solids accumulation cannot be checked yearly, then you lot may wish to audit and pump it according to the frequency guidelines in Tabular array 1. Your local health department should be able to tell you the size of your tank. When inspecting the tank, cheque the effluent filter (or for older systems cheque the sanitary tee or the outlet baffle to exist sure that it has not broken off and dropped into the tank). Besides, exist certain to take both compartments of the tank pumped (note the two compartments shown earlier in Effigy two).
If the septic organization is not used very often (every bit in an infrequently used vacation home with a correctly sized tank), information technology volition probably not need to be pumped as frequently as indicated in Table 1. If you use a garbage disposal, the tank may need to exist pumped more ofttimes. After a few inspections, you lot should be able to arrange the schedule according to the rate at which solids accumulate.
| Tank Size (gallons) | Number of People Using the System | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | |
| 900 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 1 | <1 |
| 1,000 | 12 | 6 | iii | 2 | 1 |
| ane,250 | sixteen | 8 | iii | 2 | 1 |
| 1,500 | nineteen | 9 | 4 | three | two |
| Source: Adjusted from "Estimated Septic Tank Pumping Frequency," by Karen Manci, 1984, Journal of Ecology Engineering. Vol. 110(1):283-285. | |||||
What Should Not Be Put into the Septic Organisation?
Make sure you are aware of the types and amounts of extra waste materials that are poured down the drain. Limiting the use of your garbage disposal volition minimize the flow of excess solids to your tank. Garbage disposals unremarkably double the amount of solids added to the tank.
Exercise non pour cooking greases, oils, and fats down the bleed. Grease hardens in the septic tank and accumulates until it clogs the inlet or outlet. Grease poured down the drain with hot water may menstruation through the septic tank, but then it can clog soil pores completely and ruin the drainfield.
Pesticides, paints, pigment thinners, solvents, disinfectants, poisons, and other household chemicals should not exist dumped down the drain into a septic organization considering they may impale beneficial bacteria in the septic tank and soil microorganisms that help purify the sewage. As well, some organic chemicals will menstruum untreated through the septic tank and the soil, thus contaminating the underlying groundwater.
If your home has a water treatment organization, such as a water softener, the discharge pipe from the backwash should not be connected to the waste plumbing organisation or septic tank.
Are Septic-Tank Additives Necessary?
No. These products include biologically based materials (bacteria, enzymes, and yeast), inorganic chemicals (acids and bases), or organic chemicals (including solvents). Research conducted to date on three of these types of bacterial additives has non shown any reduction in the rate of solids buildup nor increases in bacterial activity in the septic tank. Therefore, they do not seem to reduce the need for regular pumping of the septic tank. Some additive products comprise organic chemicals and may even damage the drainfield or contaminate the groundwater and nearby wells.
Is Special Intendance Needed for the Drainfield?
Yes. The drainfield does non have an unlimited chapters. The more h2o your family uses, the greater the likelihood of problems with the septic organization.
Water conservation practices can aid reduce the corporeality of wastewater generated in the home. Periodically bank check your plumbing for leaky faucets and toilets. Uncorrected leaks can more than than double the amount of h2o you use. Many soils can absorb the 200 to 250 gallons of sewage ordinarily produced each mean solar day by a family of four, merely these soils would become waterlogged if an extra 250 gallons were added. For more information on this subject, see North Carolina Cooperative Extension publications WQWM-75/HE-250, Focus on Residential Water Conservation and WQWM-76/HE-213, Water Management Checklist for the Home.
Exist sure that foundation drains, roof waters, gutter waters, and surface waters from driveways and other paved areas practise not menstruum over the septic tank or the drainfield. Careful landscaping tin assist direct excess surface waters away from the system.
The septic system is an efficient, inexpensive, and convenient method for treating and disposing of household wastewater. Because not all soils are suited for conventional systems, comprehensive soil and site investigations must be performed before yous purchase whatsoever state.
Septic systems volition adequately absorb and purify wastewater if they are properly maintained.
Contrary to popular belief, septic systems are not maintenance complimentary. Money that is saved by non paying a monthly sewer bill should be prepare aside for regular inspections and maintenance. A few precautions can relieve you anguish and coin. Reducing h2o use, fugitive grease, cleaning the effluent filter, pumping the tank periodically, and properly landscaping the yard to keep surface water away from the tank and drainfield are inexpensive precautions that can assistance clinch your system a long life. The Northward Carolina Cooperative Extension publication AG-439-22, Septic System Owner's Guide, summarizes some of import twenty-four hours-to-day direction and periodic maintenance activities to improve your system's longevity. When properly located and maintained, your system should provide years of trouble-complimentary, low-cost service.
Reference & Acknowledgements
Mancl, Chiliad.1000. 1984. Journal of Environmental Engineering, Vol. 110(1):283–285.
This publication is a revision of an earlier version.
Publication date: June 1, 2022
AG-439-13
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Source: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/septic-systems-and-their-maintenance
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