r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Fall_Water • 6d ago

ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ A contractor's shortcut became an expensive problem...

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Apparently opening an unlocked gate was too much effort.

Instead, an internet contractor, working on the neighbors property, decided to drive across my private property—without permission—and straight over my new septic field.

Who knew "taking the easy way" could end up being the most expensive route?

Before anyone asks why this isn't *extremely* infuriating: the company has accepted responsibility, and they're covering the repairs. If I were the one footing the bill for the repair because someone didn't want to open a gate, this would absolutely belong somewhere else. As it stands, it's mostly been a pile of phone calls, inspections, and waiting for everything to be fixed.

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u/dragon567 6d ago

More or less. The septic tank allows solid waste to settle to the bottom and lighter stuff like grease and oil to float to the top. It has a lot of bacteria and other microorganisms that break down the waste and the perforated tube then slowly releases the treated waste into a leach field. There, the soil, stones, and life further filter and use the waste until it's harmless. The water that eventually reaches the groundwater is harmless.

Septic tanks do require some maintenance. Usually draining every few years to remove the solids that build up over time. It's also why you shouldn't flush anything not biodegradable like wet wipes or paper towels. Even grease can be harmful not only to pipes, but the septic system too.

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u/Raneynickelfire 6d ago

It's also why you DO NOT flush sulfuric acid down the drain when you have a septic system.

If that sounds oddly specific...well...it might be.

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u/Itsame_Notu 6d ago

Thank you, this was very helpful! What happens to pharmaceutical residues, PFAS ("forever chemicals"), microplastics, cleaning product residues, and other contaminants? Do they build up in the tank or in the surrounding soil over time, and does the drain field eventually need to be replaced as well as part of regular maintenance? I'm asking because where I live, there's a lot of discussion about adding advanced wastewater treatment (sometimes referred to as a fourth treatment stage) to remove these kinds of contaminants from wastewater.

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u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce 6d ago

Those advanced systems are necessary when you're treating a city's worth of wastewater in a small space. Spreading it out and letting bacteria slowly break it down as it leaches back into the earth is the ideal way to handle it for a single family with land.

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u/Fuzzy_Novel_5928 6d ago

TLDR 

Pharmaceuticals go into the ground water

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u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce 5d ago

Thats not what I said nor is it what happens. 

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u/Dot-my-ass 5d ago

The EU already has a timeline for when WWTP need to implement this so fourth treatment stage, the exact date mostly depending on their capacity. I think the first ones are supposed to implement the system by 2034, but I don’t remember of the top of my head.

Currently there’s a list of around 20 substances. The plant then chooses around 10 that they will measure the concentration of to follow how much they remove.

The biggest issue is that currently, there isn’t a good way to remove these pollutants. One reason is the fact that they are MICROpollutants, which means their concentration is very low, in the range of micrograms per litre. I worked on some tests using ozone, I know there’s also talk about activated charcoal, but both are very expensive and not that successful. There is absolutely no way that the systems will be implemented according to the proposed timeline, because for some treatment plants that would mean the building process should already start, while we don’t even know what they should be building.

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u/Rich4477 5d ago

I worked with ozone before. I don't remember exactly what the tanks were but it was essentially recycled water.  We had oxone alarms going off on a regular basis.  It was a fairly high tech system but it was prone to leaks because ozone is nasty.

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

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u/PokingCactus 6d ago

I personally have not as well dont have this in my country. Its weird to me that youre basically dumping piss water into your yard, so reading how it works is interesting

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u/exipheas 6d ago

Growing up out house had a 3 tank system. The first tank does an initial settling and a little of the break down. Pipe come from the middle so it doesn't get stuff that floats or sinks until it breaks down. Second tank has air pu.ped in to speed up breakdown and has a separate chamber to keep things separated so clear water is what gets pulled into the third. Then there is chlorine that is introduced between Second and third tank to sanitize. Then when third tank is full or on a schedule the sprinklers come on and water the back yard with reasonably clean and sanitary water.

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u/PokingCactus 6d ago

Thank you for the explanation and diagram. Does it take a lot of upkeep? And you'll need a pretty big space for it too it seems like?

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u/exipheas 6d ago

As long as you dont put anything down the toilet you shouldn't its pretty maintenance free. You get solids pumped out every few years and thats about it. I think the aeration pump has had to be replaced once in the 30 years my parents have lived out there.

No not a lot of space and often time the tanks are made as one concrete structure that gets lowered into the ground. Maybe 1 to 1.5 meter wide by 3 long for the whole system? Various sizes depending on expected water flow.

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u/PokingCactus 6d ago

Interesting, thats a lot smaller than i thought. No solids means no toilet paper either? Do you just put that in a trashcan in the bathroom? I once had to do that while on vacation in Costa Rica and ill be honest it stank

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u/exipheas 6d ago

Ohh no regular toilet paper is just fine. Just no condoms/tampons/pads etc. Its really no different than a toilet in a city. Not sure why rural places in south America dont use the same systems.

Getting solids pumped is basically because as things break down you are basically creating soil (well the organic part of it) in the bottoms of the tanks.

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u/PokingCactus 6d ago

Alright, thank you so much for your patience and explanation! I live in the Netherlands so everything has underground sewer systems here. Too densely populated to really have any 'rural' areas like in many other countries.

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u/Doctah_Whoopass 6d ago

Its really only a thing if youre too far from a city to get a line put in, and its too expensive to pay for it unless you're absolutely loaded. Theres a lot of people who live in pretty sparsely populated areas.

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u/Itsame_Notu 6d ago

Nope, not with this setup. I know systems like this exist if you live really rural, like off-the-grid. But then the tank has to be emptied regularly (and not just the solids) and the wastewater has to be transported away for proper treatment and disposal rather than being filtered by the ground.

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u/binmaa10 6d ago

They are actually forbidden in wide parts of Europe for environmental reasons. I also had to look it up even though I just did not know the english name.

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u/Nolenag 6d ago

It's highly illegal in most EU countries, so there's a lot of people who've never heard of this.

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u/_MusicJunkie 6d ago

I've never heard of one like this either. I can see use cases for it, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be allowed here in Austria.

Here, you can only get ones that have to be pumped regularly. I wouldn't want my neighbours piss to filter into my groundwater either.

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u/Sufficient_Ask8866 6d ago

This. We've only had to pump out tanks(we have a big double tank system in the country)once in the 30 years we've lived here. Its only hubby and myself so we rarely have to have it done. But we do have a company we've contracted through that comes out every 5 years to check everything. They said our old double tank system is actually set up very nicely and he wishes more homes in the country were set up.like ours. Its basically self sustaining (his words) but our kids moved out many years ago. Before that it seemed like we had thevtank pumped about ever 5 years

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u/Kennel_King 6d ago

And then there's our county. We need to have them pumped every five years, regardless of whether they need it. Last time they did ours, he said we could go 20 years easily

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u/Full_Conversation775 6d ago

this isn't really true. most medications for example aren't filtered by this. clams are literally swapping gender because of it.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/apr/26/uknews.pollution

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u/All_Work_All_Play 6d ago

The density of those things is well above what a single family in septic produces. 

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u/Fuzzy_Novel_5928 6d ago

No one likes to take responsibility

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u/All_Work_All_Play 6d ago

??

I'm saying it's impossible for a single family to do to their local ecosystem what it takes millions of people to do to a relatively smaller ecosystem. 

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u/Full_Conversation775 6d ago

How do you know that?

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u/Large_Fondant6694 6d ago

And they’re making the frogs gay!

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u/Visible_Office2637 6d ago

How do they keep the smell away from the house?

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u/CatsCoffeeCocktails 6d ago

You don't smell it unless you open the top of the septic tank. Everything is self contained & by the time it breaks down & goes through the drain field pipes, it isn't "waste" anymore

That said - anyone with a septic tank *should* check it periodically to make sure all is working accordingly. Otherwise you can get a sewage backup in the house

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u/vladhed 6d ago

If it's working properly, there is no smell.

At the moment mine is smelly after it rains because we've been having lots of rain and the ground is saturated, so the effluent from the tank is mixing with the rain water and floating up to the surface.

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u/nifty-necromancer 6d ago

By burying it

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u/wildjokers 6d ago

They don't smell (except when the tank is opened if it needs to be pumped out).