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Harvesting Land Drain


Grosey

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If anyone has followed my blog you'll know that my house has a whacking great retaining wall. A land drain was put in to it and it hasn't stopped running with water since it was installed, during the recent rain it's absolutely gushing so I know it's working well! I was already considering rainwater harvesting but considering the land drain pipe is already running exactly through where my underground tank would be could I also incorporate this in to my grey water system for flushing toilets?

 

Another point to consider is that this land drain is directly underneath a soak away for the septic tank of neighbours behind me - see picture of exposed soak away. 

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BCO not said anything about that septic leach field ..??! It should be a minimum distance from a dwelling which it now obviously isn't ..!

 

Questions ...

 

- do you own the land it's on..?

- is it septic or treatment plant..? 

- how much land do you have below the house i.e. If you had to move that leach field do you have the space..?

 

If that is leachate and rainwater combined then you can't store it and use it as the pathogen count in it will be through the roof. Consider taking their pipe off to below your house but that should be a cost they cover. 

 

Rainwater tanks should be rainwater only under the regulations / standards and groundwater is classed as a different supply type. 

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Building control haven't said anything about it being an issue where it is. We exposed a portion of it during excavations but that will all be dealt with and buried again in due time. 

 

So im guessing the short answer is no - you cannot flush your toilets with other people's rancid poo-water!

 

Would anyone look to do anything with this free water supply or just channel it away appropriately?

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I have to admit I would not like the thought of next doors effluent draining into the ground right above and behind my retaining wall. Did you know this was there before you started?

 

What are you doing with your own waste?  I take it there is no mains drainage available?

 

I would be concerned at your own soakaway getting overloaded. You really want to keep this "land drain" well away from your own effluent soakaway, and I would abandon all thoughts of harvesting it for anything, just find somewhere for it to go to.
 

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15 hours ago, CC45 said:

[...]  You may now be responsible for safely disposing of this dirty (and potentially polluting) water!

 

I winced when I read your post, and agree with @CC45.

Maintenance of that pipe will be an issue too.

17 hours ago, ProDave said:

[...] I would abandon all thoughts of harvesting it for anything, just find somewhere for it to go to.

 

And that's not always easy. It took me a nerve-wracking year to sort out a similar problem formally 

16 hours ago, joe90 said:

I would be tempted to get the water tested 

 

Me too. Because the land drain  'discharge' might be the subject of  some  third person's ire. 

Keep the two systems separate at all costs.

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If that really is for a septic tank, then I am surprised on a number of counts.


 

Firstly it looks too densely built up for each property to have a septic tank and soakaway. Secondly it appears the soakaway is on Grosey's land. surely he would have known that when buying the plot. Thirdly, I can't see how building control allowed a new house so close to an existing leach field.


 

Something does not adding up.

 

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It is a soak away for a septic tank for the semi detached house you can see behind. Has been there for years as the plot had basically always been wasteland. 

 

Was made aware of it during the purchase but was not advised in any way that it would cause any sort of a problem. It will be approx 4-5m back from the rear wall of my property, and is 4-5m above my garage floor slab. Another retaining wall will be built at this rear garden level. 

 

As I said before, building control well aware as it's been exposed during all of their visits, nothing has been mentioned other than re-covering it properly in its current location. 

 

Attached photo shows the location a bit better, its underneath the membrane halfway up the bank, it'll be further exposed and pushed back to the right (on photo) even more. 

 

As as far as I was concerned a soak away is basically just draining water albeit polluted, it's been soaking directly downwards for years and not out through the front face that was dug out, so now that I've built a wall with copious amounts of tanking I perhaps naively assumed that it would not present an issue?

 

 

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Edited by Grosey
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