Water meters

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussion' started by pip, Jul 24, 2007.

  1. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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    Filter beds always clog up, don't they?
    Sounds like a really crazy method of getting rid of a bit of waste.
     
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    • shiney

      shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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      Our system is not quite the same. We have a cylindrical metal tank with an outlet for liquid near the top. Land drains (perforated clay pipes) run from the tank towards the 'soakaway'. The original soakaway was supposed to be 6ft deep but about 2ft x 2ft. After about 30 years neither the soakaway nor the pipes were working as they should but after investigation the pipes had shown movement because of tree roots.

      This was covered by the old style insurance so the insurance company had new porous compressed bitumen pipes put in (supposed to be the super new type of pipes that would last at least 20 years) and ran them in a different direction and put in a less deep soakaway. After 5 years these new super duper pipes were found (or not found) to have disintegrated due to land heave from a couple of year's of excessive rain. A war of words with the insurers ensued (they said they had no record of them having said they were superior and would last that long - so I produced the letter they had sent :)) and they still refused to replace them. Instead of me taking them to court (I'm always happy to do so - as per the cases of Albert Haddock :roflol:) I had a trick up my sleeve of knowing a bank's insurance department that had their staff mortgages (over a thousand of them) with that insurer. They agreed to replace the pipes with the original style.

      After another 20 years we were having problems again and it turned out, after drilling and excavating, that the water table was too high to put in another deep soakaway and we would need to have a very large but shallow soakaway put in that would cost in excess of £15,000. We decided not to bother and to have the tank emptied more frequently.

      Over here it is illegal, since 2020, to do that and the nearest running water is two miles away.

      Over the last three years the cost of emptying the tank, and all three chambers that are between the house and the tank, has risen from £90 to £140. Still a considerable saving on replacing the soakaway and the disruption it would cause as it is difficult to get to that area. The tank needed more emptying than it used to, also because of us opening our garden to visitors where we could have 500 people visiting on that weekend.

      A proper septic tank must still have a filtration system but would cost, in our situation, something in excess of £10,000.
       
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      • Jocko

        Jocko Guided by my better half.

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        Having read all that I am now happy to pay £200/year to have my sewerage taken away and disposed of.
         
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        • pete

          pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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          Wondering why the water table is rising @shiney .:whistle:
           
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          • JWK

            JWK Gardener Staff Member

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            No wonder everything grows like mad in shineyland, it's like hydroponics ...
             
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            • shiney

              shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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              Climate change? :heehee:

              I think it had risen at that time because of two very wet years - also, we subsequently found we had a water leak in the front garden that must have been going on for ages as the front garden was saturated up to 18" from the surface (we weren't on a water meter at that time). They had fun and games trying to find the leak and eventually, after three days, decided to run a new main to the house.
               
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              • pete

                pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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                Oh, ok I thought it might have something to do with the sprinkler.;):biggrin::biggrin:
                 
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                • shiney

                  shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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                  Naw! We never water the area in question. The sprinkler is only on the veggies and some of the flower beds.
                   
                • pete

                  pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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                  Yeah but it could raise the local water table in the whole area for miles around.:biggrin:
                   
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                  • Sheal

                    Sheal Total Gardener

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                    Our water rates included in the council tax are £270.60 a year - at the moment. As I said previously, we have septic tanks and the solids tank is emptied approximately every three years and paid for by ourselves.

                    Everything from our household is piped into the solids tank and liquids are pumped from there into two further tanks. All three are made of some form of plastic, I'm not quite sure what. The two liquid tanks are filled with peat that cleans/filters the liquids before releasing into a perforated pipe which was installed two years ago. That disperses the liquids down into surrounding farmland. Previous to that there was a soakaway in the adjoining field that had blocked and the liquids were coming to the surface. The peat tanks must be effective as livestock were drinking from the puddles it created.
                     
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                    • shiney

                      shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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                      Unfortunately, from a dispersal drainage point of view, we have very flat land here so the liquids just tend to seep away very slowly. One of the neighbours, who has a 2,000 gallon tank still pumps his surface liquid into the field. It's an electric pump with a very long hose attached and, at night, he throws the end of the hose into the field. :rolleyespink: He usually waits until the wind is in the right direction so as not to bother the neighbours. The joys of living in the country :whistle:
                       
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