Sewage Treatment Plant - Discharge to ditch

[Gymwear7]

Hi All - We are about to exchange a septic tank for a sewage treatment plant and need to discharge to a ditch that runs for 10 months of the year - have others done this ? ( -  advice appreciated - also looking at biocell quickone, bio pure, vortex - aware the "which tank" discussion been done before - any links/experiences ? Thanks Jim

[PeterW]

You'll probably have to put a rumble drain in for the discharge first, and only the excess will run to the ditch.

 

In terms of tanks..? The one with the least moving parts, and one that can be serviced without having to enter the tank to do it

[ProDave]

Which country are you in?  I hope not Scotland as SEPA won't allow discharge to a dry ditch.

 

As @PeterW says most on here will recommend one of the air blower type treatment plants. These include the Conder (the one I have) Vortex ( @joe90 has that one) Biopure, several have that, Graff, I have seen a couple. Plus several more no doubt.

 

The ones I would not recommend are the ones that have moving mechanical parts down in the smelly stuff. You really don't want to be the person with the job of fixing those when a mechanical part breaks.

[ToughButterCup]

51 minutes ago, Gymwear7 said:

...bio pure, ...

 

Switched mine on for the first time last week.

It was like switching on a log flume or jacuzzi. (Clear fresh water I hasten to add)  No moving parts. Pump breaks? Take the lid off replace the pump , reconnect, go.

 

Found a great crested newt clinging to a piece of PIR, tried to rescue it, leaned in  - glasses straight off the end of my nose  never to be seen again, but Sharpies float.

 

NotAlotOfPeopleKnowThat

[nod]

I installed this one without any experience of treatment plant 

Really easy to install 

No maintenance

[Gymwear7]

thanks Tough Buttercup - what model is that ? thanks Jim

 

[nod]

2 minutes ago, nod said:

I installed this one without any experience of treatment plant 

Really easy to install 

No maintenance

 

[Gymwear7]

thanks Nod

 

[ProDave]

This is the Conder ASP6 going in, very similar to the BipPure, 6 person in this case.

 

[ToughButterCup]

17 minutes ago, Gymwear7 said:

thanks Tough Buttercup - what model is that ? thanks Jim

 

The 3 to 15 people version (BioPure 3 maybe ?)  Jim, because we decided to put two houses on it.  £3000ish delivered.

Also decided to bed it in concrete (high water table sometimes) - easy - attach 4 concrete fence posts with chain to 8 shackles and drop them in first. The a tonne or two of concrete.

Get the tank in the right way round (who can guess why I thought it useful to point that out), and then above say a meter from the bottom - above the concrete - put a whole load of 10mm in with a French drain sleeve bedded in that lot ... so it becomes a soak away ... and duct the soakaway to the outfall. Tickety Boo.

 

I had the fear of God put in me by someone pointing out that Digesters can float even when full of packed lunches. He'd seen it happen. And I believed him. 

Edited June 23, 2020 by ToughButterCup

[dpmiller]

check ground conditions too- if you're sitting on rock a shallow-dig option might help, , our Solido Smart is 175cm up to the manhole, a lot less than a Vortex or Conder.

[Roundtuit]

Bio Pure 2 here, discharging straight into ditch (England). The ditch usually has water in, but that may be because there is also some discharge going into it upstream.

[Miek]

To discharge to a ditch you need to contact NRW (in Wales) or the environment agency in your country, not sure who that is in England or Scotland. They grant permission if you can fulfill the requirements.

[ProDave]

For anyone reading, it is SEPA in Scotland who grand a licence to discharge to a watercourse.  They prefer not to and like to see evidence that discharge to land is not possible. And in our case they insisted on a partial soakaway, and needed a measuerment of the flow rate in the burn to ensure there was adequate dilution.

[joe90]

I installed a Vortex here in Devon discharging into a ditch that’s dry for a few months of the summer, you have to discharge using a “rumble drain”. A ditch is dug, filled with drainage stone, perforated pipe laid in the stone, more stone on top, plastic sheet then topsoil. Works a treat ? and no drainage field to fail in the future.

[ProDave]

14 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I installed a Vortex here in Devon discharging into a ditch that’s dry for a few months of the summer, you have to discharge using a “rumble drain”. A ditch is dug, filled with drainage stone, perforated pipe laid in the stone, more stone on top, plastic sheet then topsoil. Works a treat ? and no drainage field to fail in the future.

Different names for the same thing. That's what I refer to as our "partial soakaway"

 

The daft thing here, is I have permission to discharge into the burn, but no part of this soakaway is allowed withing 10 metres of the burn.  So my partial soakaway has to go back to solid pipe for the last 10 metres.  Logic would dictate that could continue all the way up to the burn to allow more chance to soak into the ground, but that was not allowed.

[joe90]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Logic would dictate that could continue all the way up to the burn to allow more chance to soak into the ground, but that was not allowed.

ha, when I enquired about “rumble drains” I was told the rumble bit had to extend to the ditch, this was so when the ditch was flowing it would enter the rumble bit to “wash it out “.

[ProDave]

Just now, joe90 said:

ha, when I enquired about “rumble drains” I was told the rumble bit had to extend to the ditch, this was so when the ditch was flowing it would enter the rumble bit to “wash it out “.

Need to sent the SEPA people on the same course the EA go to.

[PeterW]

1 hour ago, joe90 said:

ha, when I enquired about “rumble drains” I was told the rumble bit had to extend to the ditch, this was so when the ditch was flowing it would enter the rumble bit to “wash it out “.

 

if you use washed 40mm limestone in the last 5 metres and also use a pair of 45 degree bends to put a drop in your last length of pipe you don't tend to have to worry about the washout making it back up to your tank when the stream floods.

[joe90]

6 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

if you use washed 40mm limestone in the last 5 metres and also use a pair of 45 degree bends to put a drop in your last length of pipe you don't tend to have to worry about the washout making it back up to your tank when the stream floods.

our ditch never gets that full, the wash  out was of the stone below the pipe rather than the pipe itself but in different circumstances the above would be a good idea.

[dpmiller]

Our open drain is wet in the winter, dry in the summer, and NIEA had no issue with direct discharge. As it happens we're discharging into our perimeter drain(does the other two sides of our triangular plot) so the plant is about 30m  of perf pipe and drainstone away from it...

[Gymwear7]

Thanks guys.. Joe90 how far is your tank from the ditch ? Jim 

[joe90]

9 hours ago, Gymwear7 said:

Thanks guys.. Joe90 how far is your tank from the ditch ? Jim 

12m, 2m of plain pipe then 10m of perforated pipe to the ditch.

[Gymwear7]

Thanks Joe90.

 

Has there been discussions re pros and con's of vortex, bio-pure etc and does the bio pure really have a longer emptying interval ? (3-5 years) any links to previous threads save people repeating themselves.. thanks in advance