Pauljg79

That is crazy! I have seen MDPE pipe moled under a stream before and it was passed by building control. How do you find the borehole water? Do you run it through a UV lamp? what's the taste like?

Ah ok, I miss read and thought it 80m away. Yes if the water authority say no, most commonly due to the pipe being up to its capacity, and the next available one is outside of that 30m distance then normally the EA will be happy to grant application. If you have an available sewer within 30m and are allowed to discharge to it, then the EA usually wont grant a permit. They do their best to get people to discharge to mains sewers rather than the environment.

Is this now sorted? I can offer advise if not. I've attached the latest drawing i had on file for these. It's still not very clear. Let me know if you need any help. Best wishes, Paul DS0968P-03 - E6 E12 Gravity.pdf

If you plan on burying it i would enclose it in something completely water tight, a drain down to a soakaway opens up risk of water coming back up into the enclosure. Just make sure there's some sort of vent above ground level to allow fresh air in, and good access.

Ventilation should be the first point of call to look at when it comes to smell. A standard soil stack will draw air out of the plant as long as there is a way for fresh air to come in. People often try and seal off treatment plants to prevent air getting out, but if your soil stack is trying to pull the air out then its good to allow air in too. I see a lot of pumped outlet treatment plants smelling over gravity outlet plants because of the fact that gravity outlet plants have an open ended pipe allowing fresh air in. Once you're happy with ventilation, then you have to start to look at treatment quality. You could be right, the plant could be slightly underloaded. How long has it been in and working? It can take a while for bacteria to form, also food waste breaking down in the primary chamber will cause anaerobic respiration which smells quite bad, so make sure no food is going down the sink, Also, dont put any milk down the sink either, that has a huge BOD loading and can cause bad smells.

This is a really nice solution to noisy air blowers. The housings most manufacturers use seem to resonate with the blower making noise a problem. If anyone is planning on doing this, just make sure there is a way for fresh air to get into the housing and if at all possible, pus some sort of mesh to prevent pollen or grass cuttings in. This will prevent the air filter in the blower getting blocked and still allow fresh air into the housing. Staving the blower of oxygen will cause poor treatment. This example is good, but if you go too far away from the treatment plant you may also want to increase the size of the blower to maintain oxygen levels in the plant (increasing the diameter is also advisable if you are going further than say, 20m (admittedly it's not common to go that far away). Other nice housings can be bee hives, they look good and the wood does a reasonable job at dampening the sound. Also: if anyone is planning on doing this, and you have choice of where to put the blower and housing, pick somewhere shaded. It can make a big difference to the temperature in the summer months, prolonging lifespan of the blower.

Some planners are, some aren't, it's still a grey area within the legislation. I spoke to the EA at the last British water meeting and they advised planning was not needed for sewage installations, which is contrary to what their website says. As a rule of thumb you should always go to mains where possible, even if it means pumping the waste water there. Generally speaking the EA wont grant a permit where there is a possibility to send the sewage to a mains sewer (if it is withing a reasonable distance). To use a treatment plant (whether it be a package treatment plant or a septic tank with tertiary treatment like a reed bed) in an SSSI or Special conservation area you will need a permit from the EA as you wont adhere to the general binding rules, therefore you'll have to apply and they will kick it out unless you can prove an extremely good reason why you aren't able to connect to the mains sewer (money isn't a good enough reason, distance is though). If the sewer is on your land and you are allowed to connect to it then it's highly unlikely you'll be able to discharge to the environment. In this instance, levels become important, if you can run the pipes to the sewer and have a gravity fall, then great, no pump needed. If the levels dictate you'll need a pump, then go with a twin pump, pump station (you will want a back up in case one blocks or breaks, otherwise there will be Sh*t everywhere). In your case JSHarris, you were allowed a permit because the sewer was greater than 30m away.