Water softener discharge options when on septic / sewage treatment?

[flanagaj]

I have read that the waste from a water softener is very saline and not suitable for disposal into a septic / domestic sewage treatment.   I doubt this can be disposed off via a rain water soakaway, does it effectively rule out having a water softener?

[Gus Potter]

13 minutes ago, flanagaj said:

I have read that the waste from a water softener is very saline and not suitable for disposal into a septic / domestic sewage treatment.   I doubt this can be disposed off via a rain water soakaway, does it effectively rule out having a water softener?

Good question.

 

Hard water often occurs when the water that comes in from the mains supply is extracted from a chalk aquifer or run off from chalk bearing soils. The South Downs are a good example of this. This makes the water that comes into your house a little alkaline and it has a lot of mineral salts in it too. In parts of Scotland the water is off peat soils which makes it a little acidic.

 

What folk do is to have water "filters" that compensate for the alkaline water and capture the mineral salts.. so your kettle and hot water system don't get firred up. In Scotland in peaty areas the water can be a bit brown when it comes out the tap so the filters clean that up a bit.

 

But in both cases the PH value is close enough to 7.0 so as not to impact on the bacteria in a septic tank.

 

However.. if you are talking about the things you hang on the side of the toilet then they are toxic to the bateria in the septic tank, just like toilet bleach.

 

 

[Kelvin]

Do a search on here as this has been discussed before. The general consensus seems to be it’s fine as it’s not a huge amount of brine. I’m fitting one to mine. 

[Kelvin]

 

[flanagaj]

2 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

 

Thanks Kelvin

Edited August 30, 2023 by flanagaj