Septic Tank Regulations

[tonycordon]

My daughter lives in Herfordshire, not far from Bishops Stortford. She has a 'traditional' septic tank at the bottom of her garden (which occasionally overflows). I have heard that there are plans afoot to force owners of these old type tanks to upgrade to a modern Clargester type tank. Has anyone heard of these proposals? If so what is known? Please.

[skeggysteve]

My understand is that if it discharges into a water course then it must be replaced.
I live in a National Trust propery and they have an exemption - only have to replace if the septic tank fails.
When our septic tank outlet pipe was broken by a tree root they replaced it with Klargester very quickly.
If the septic tank doesn't discharge in to a water course then the rule might be different.

Klargesters are expensive and need specialist to instal but they are very, very good.
We used to have to empty our septic tank every year, with the Klargerster it over 3 years and still not full.

[Skyedriver]

My understanding of the traditional septic tank is that run correctly it shouldn't need emptying. OK it may eventually silt up but in general if you are careful about what goes into it then it should be ok. we've had ours for 5 years and have no idea when it was last cleaned out, if at all since 1984.

[Murph7355]

Are there key dos and don't s with these?

I may be buying a property with one, and was wondering how much hassle they are.

Appreciate the obvious stuff shouldn't be chucked down there (women's products etc ). What about things like bleach and other cleaning materials?

[Skyedriver]

Bleach etc are a definite NO NO, they kill off the very bacteria you want in the tank to eat up the errmm poo etc

[b2hbm]

Skyedriver said:

My understanding of the traditional septic tank is that run correctly it shouldn't need emptying. OK it may eventually silt up but in general if you are careful about what goes into it then it should be ok. we've had ours for 5 years and have no idea when it was last cleaned out, if at all since 1984.

Same here. When we moved into our current house the previous owner told us to empty it every year. Then our neighbor asked me why we were getting it emptied and said that normally folks just left them alone, he couldn't remember the last time he did his. So we left it and 5/6yrs later it's still fine but we are careful about making sure only decomposable stuff goes down. And looking after the friendly bugs of course.

The biggest problem we've found is the shallow slope of the drain to the tank. Every now and then it backs up, but it clears easily enough. I reckon that was what started the "empty every year" with the previous owner. (who only lived there for 3yrs)

[Dr John]

Advice from the "dains" chap who sorted out some problems for us was; only empty it if it silts up or if it smells, don't put anything non-compostable down the loo and if it has been emptied get the bacteria going with a dead rat.
Septic tank plus metered water = very low water bills!