Passing along info about Mound Systems (septic)

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Sigh. Another setback. Am passing along info for those who may be rural with a Mound system for sewage treatment and were thinking of carrying water for the toilet tank from a creek/pond.

Prompted by the earlier outhouse thread, I decided to find out more about our mound system. There are two types out there. Each type consists of a septic tank, then liquids flow out that into another tank, and then from that tank the effluent goes into the mound where it filtrates. The difference in types is that one type is completely gravity flow. The other type has a pump in the second (liquid) tank to pump the effluent up to the mound.

It turns out that ours has a pump. I thought we were all total gravity flow. Basically, from whenever the last pumping occurs our system can handle 400 to 500 gallons more. Even at conservative flushing that's far short the 'indefinite' that I was hoping for.

Oh, sure, there's a bright side... this way we won't have to play roulette with the outgoing pipes freezing (since we won't have any heat if we lose power, either).

Anyway, just a mention of it for others out there who are rural with mound systems.

(Was it only last week I found out our LP oven won't light without electricity? Although the burners will. )

Sigh.

-- winter wondering (winterwondering@yahoo.com), July 20, 1999


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