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From what you describe, in a very wet climate like the sound, a containment unit that would be pumped out once or twice a year may be your best bet especially if you're worried about contamination of you well, it may need to be a permanent solution.
Depending on how the substrate lies in conjunction with private wells, there may not be a way to put in a traditional drain field with enough separation for safety.
The valley where I've been living is a bowl with a layer of impermeable rock that contains everything and it all flows to the north. There's already arsenic in the ground naturally, but there was a lot of mining in the area as well that didn't help matters. Then add all the sub developments all with individual or shared wells, but each house has it's own septic drain field. In recent years we've reached saturation an coloform bacteria is becoming a real issue.
Since the developments aren't in city limits, there's no link to a septic treatment plant. Some of the higher end developments have put in private plants, but there's been leaks from them too.
You may want to talk to you county sanitarian. If you're moving to a developing area, there may be plans in the works to hook everyone into a municipal system which could be an unexpected added expense after you put in a private system. Doesn't hurt to ask before you put a lot of money and effort into a system the county might condemn in just a few years.
I say this because Washington state isn't well known for respecting private property rights.
A good containment unit could be far cheaper in the long run.
Installing and preferably burying a holding tank to be regularly pumped out is a good idea and really wouldn't be that much money at all.
Or just for one person for an easy inexpensive way to get started, what about a marine/RV style toliet? You could transfer the waste into a portable transfer tank like this https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Gallon-...mr3&th=1&psc=1 then haul that tank to any RV waste dump in your area.
Or go with that composting toilet and just get nice sealable storage bins to empty and store it in.
Cows and horses are strick vegans. They don't eat anything that isn't plant based. You can use their manure on your food garden and plants and trees that you plan to eat from.
Humans don't tend to be strick vegans and their manure, as well as their dogs, cats or any other meat/milk/egg/fish eating species, can be used on hedges, bushes, ornamentals - anything no one will be eating from.
You will need to watch run off to make sure the meat eaters poo isn't contaminating your food or your neighbors after a rain storm as well as streams lakes etc, or even your own water shed for that matter.
From what you describe, in a very wet climate like the sound, a containment unit that would be pumped out once or twice a year may be your best bet especially if you're worried about contamination of you well, it may need to be a permanent solution.
Depending on how the substrate lies in conjunction with private wells, there may not be a way to put in a traditional drain field with enough separation for safety.
The valley where I've been living is a bowl with a layer of impermeable rock that contains everything and it all flows to the north. There's already arsenic in the ground naturally, but there was a lot of mining in the area as well that didn't help matters. Then add all the sub developments all with individual or shared wells, but each house has it's own septic drain field. In recent years we've reached saturation an coloform bacteria is becoming a real issue.
Since the developments aren't in city limits, there's no link to a septic treatment plant. Some of the higher end developments have put in private plants, but there's been leaks from them too.
You may want to talk to you county sanitarian. If you're moving to a developing area, there may be plans in the works to hook everyone into a municipal system which could be an unexpected added expense after you put in a private system. Doesn't hurt to ask before you put a lot of money and effort into a system the county might condemn in just a few years.
I say this because Washington state isn't well known for respecting private property rights.
A good containment unit could be far cheaper in the long run.
Good luck.
The property's already been perked and a septic design has been submitted and approved, although it's expired by now. So no problems there. I've even been in contact with the gentleman who did the design and he told me he can bring it up to date if necessary.
A containment unit is a thought, but it's also somewhat expensive, meaning I wouldn't have the means to purchase it for at least a year or more. By that time, I could have saved up to put electric on the lot and then get an incinerating toilet, which is another option.
I'm not talking to anyone about anything on that property except where water and electric is concerned. I don't have an HOA where I live and there are no lot restrictions. But the state of Washington doesn't allow a person to "camp" on their own property for more than 6 months at a time. I'm not exactly sure how they define camping. If it has something to do with not sleeping on your property at night, I can still be there days working on the garden and other things. I don't know if they can directly ban me from setting foot on my own land, though.
Whatever, staying under the radar as much as possible is probably the best strategy for now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 6.7traveler
Installing and preferably burying a holding tank to be regularly pumped out is a good idea and really wouldn't be that much money at all.
Or just for one person for an easy inexpensive way to get started, what about a marine/RV style toliet? You could transfer the waste into a portable transfer tank like this https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Gallon-...mr3&th=1&psc=1 then haul that tank to any RV waste dump in your area.
Or go with that composting toilet and just get nice sealable storage bins to empty and store it in.
I'm leaning towards this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ComeCloser
Cows and horses are strick vegans. They don't eat anything that isn't plant based. You can use their manure on your food garden and plants and trees that you plan to eat from.
Humans don't tend to be strick vegans and their manure, as well as their dogs, cats or any other meat/milk/egg/fish eating species, can be used on hedges, bushes, ornamentals - anything no one will be eating from.
You will need to watch run off to make sure the meat eaters poo isn't contaminating your food or your neighbors after a rain storm as well as streams lakes etc, or even your own water shed for that matter.
Contamination is what I'm worried about. Not on my lot, since I'm at the top of a hill, but I don't want to contaminate anyone else's water either. To me, that just isn't the right thing to do, even if I could get away with no one noticing it.
1) Pee outside. It's good nitrogen for trees/gardens.
2) Use one of these for #2. Buckets with a lid are like $4 at Home Depot. When it's full, put it in a dumpster. You'd be surprised how long it takes to fill one up:
IMHO, humanure is a great idea that was partially killed off by unscrupulous manufacturers, who sold tiny units that quickly went bad... (anaerobic digestion kicked in - STINK).
I've got the Humanure Book, and hope to someday do what this guy is doing as well. I think it's completely doable, and definitely the most sustainable. I've heard that not only do you add cover material, but to sprinkle a little bit of (good) topsoil into the buckets as well, which helps break things down even faster (microbes). So maybe have a bucket of dirt AND peat moss (or whatever you plan to use) to add to the buckets. One blog said that this combo gave off the least smell and had the quickest breakdown. If you DID separate your urine (which by the looks of this video you don't have to), Ben Faulk (Permaculture) had a video where he takes his urine and mixes it with sawdust to make a potting soil for spring plants. I thought that was a good use for it. I can't find the video but it could be something you look into if you separate the urine.
Our waste is a resource, I think the sooner we find ways to use it the better. Putting organic material into landfills just takes all those nutrients/minerals out of our food stream, which isn't smart.
Because of this thread, I've done a little more research.
The Romans used to take the effluent from city collection points and spread it on farmers fields, however, the bulk of the food used by the empire was imported from North Africa during the height of the empire, not from local sources. There was a lot of disease and intestinal parasites, which is why they developed communal toilets with running water flushing into underground sewers. They didn't treat the effluent, it was just flushed into rivers like the Tiber, but it did help with disease as did using aquaducts to bring in clean drinking water from pure sources far from the discharge. Victorian England wasn't as smart and the Thames became so polluted the parliament had to wear nose plugs due to the stink, disease was rampant, the poorer classes died by the thousands, children only had a fifty percent chance of living to their fifth birthday.
Modern septic treatments compost solids and chemicals are used to sterilize it to kill pathogens that spread disease.
Once the effluent is treated, the neutralized remaining solids are spread on fields used for producing non food crops such as hay for animals. The composted effluent is plowed into the fields to mix with the topsoil to complete the process.
The liquids can be processed and purified for chemicals that have market value and can be sold such as nitrogen fertilizer.
The upshot is that untreated effluent is a dangerous material with the potential to do a lot of damage through contamination.
One individual using their own product limit the danger because they aren't mixing the effluent with others you aren't exposing yourself to unfamiliar elements, but it should still be composted to break down dangerous compounds, and should not be used on food crops going directly from garden to table.
The composted material is good fertilizer, just not for anything you're going to eat.
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