Septic and Well Water?

[byebyegreyskies]

Originally Posted by achtungpv

If your poo can penetrate far enough to harm your well water, you've got a more serious problem to address.

Wow! That explains it!! Thanks!!

[HappyTexan]

There are also restrictions on how close your well head is to the septic tank/field so there is no chance of contamination of your well water.

There are numerous inspections you have to get as well from the county.

[byebyegreyskies]

Do you have to go through the whole inspection process on a regular basis or upon sale of the house or is it just a one-time thing? Is this something a realtor would help guide us through?

[IC_deLight]

Originally Posted by byebyegreyskies

Do you have to go through the whole inspection process on a regular basis or upon sale of the house or is it just a one-time thing? Is this something a realtor would help guide us through?

This is not the type of thing to trust a Realtor with if a home purchase is at stake.

If you are referring to inspecting an existing septic and/or well for compliance and functionality, then you only do so for your own protection prior to buying a house. There are licensed well service folks and there are also licensed septic professionals in the area.

If you are referring to new septic, the county will likely not permit a new conventional system. The county will require permitting and approval for either aerobic or conventional septic.

If you are referring to a new well, you would be looking at an "exempt well" in the Hays County area. You would need to register with the Hays Trinity Groundwater District and you would have to have the well drilled by a state-licensed well-driller. The location of the well in relation to septic and other potential sources of contamination is governed by "spacing rules" regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). However, these are pretty simple and the licensed well-driller would be knowledgeable about this.

If you are referring to regular inspections AFTER purchasing a home, neither the well nor a conventional septic have laws mandating regular inspection. With an aerobic septic system, however, you are required to maintain an annual maintenance contract with a licensed septic person. You have to annually report who that is to the county. The septic contracts themselves run about $150/year. The licensed septic person must perform at least three inspections per year on the aerobic septic system. Generally, you will also have to regularly put chlorine tablets into the aerobic septic tank and you will have to check the sprinkler heads to make sure they're working.

Does that help?

[HappyTexan]

If you are building new..contact the county in which you are building and talk to the inspectors..they are very helpful and can answer your questions.

I had my house built and septic installed. I'm on private water, not a well so I can't help you there. I'm in Travis county, east of 35 in Blackland Prairie clay. I have a gravity system (conventional with no moving/electric parts). I do not have to keep any records. I do get the tank pumped every 2 years and have them inspect it while it's open. Cost is based on how big your tank is and how far from the driveway it is..run me about $250 or so. You can go 3-5 years inbetween pumping but with this heavy clay soil I'd rather do it more often.

My neighbors (house < 2 years old) have an aerobic system which seems to give them more than their fair share of problems. At least once every two months the alarm goes off and someone shows up to either fix it or fiddle with it. Don't know the reason why but I've seen enough of their problems to love my gravity system all that much more.

[tahoma14410]

Byebyegreyskies...I moved from Dripping Springs into Central Austin a couple of years ago...divorce, etc. Anyway, we had a custom house built off Hamilton Pool Road, which included the usual country life requirements...aerobic septic, private well, propane tank (had to have gas cooking), etc... The aerobic systems does need to be maintained regularly...kind of a pain, at times. You must have some sort of water softener system since the well water is horribly hard. You also shouldn't use anti-bacterial soap with the septic system...for obvious reasons. Overall, it was a good trade off in having to deal with these things...10 acres 30 minutes from downtown, and we could see the Milky Way on clear nights. It's ironic...I'm actually contemplating a move to either SEA or PDX...and am flying into PDX next week for an interview. We'll see if I actually am serious about leaving Austin next week.

[tw_ds_00]

Have you thought about using a rainwater collection system? If you don't already have a well, this is a good alternative. The water is soft so you don't need a water softener and the salt water it generates. We have a system that we use for watering our plants but we're planning to upgrade to a full house system.

Here is a link to a rainwater collection "how-it-works" animated gif.

Lakota Water Company - How Rainwater Collection Works

[hal512]

Septic systems are not that different from city sewage as long as they were built correctly. No grease, no dyes from toilet paper and only toilet paper as tisses have wood fibers. Use your trash can more than your garbage disposal and no worries. As for the well...do your research before you buy. Dripping Springs sits on the shallow end/high end of the aquifer. In other words the aquifer is shallow and running away from Dripping towards Austin. Many areas like Highpointe are being charged $300-$600 a month for a water bill that would run $90-$120 in Austin due to this fact. I had looked out in Dripping, but my father a P.E. (civil sanitary) advised me agianst the area I was looking at. That is not to say all areas in Dripping are bad, but some have problems so do your homework. We have several friends out there on wells and on city water with no problems in the past 15 years.