permaculture

[John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

> There are also near-surface and surface systems for leach 
> fields  http://www.infiltratorsystems.com/.  There is a mound system that 
> a friend of mine had approved in the coastal mountains of California.

I had a link some years ago for a company doing the mound systems but 
can't find it at the moment.
Friends are planning to use one on some land near Pt. Townsend, WA as 
they are apparently acceptable by code there.  They cost a bunch more 
than the "usual" septic and in their case will definitely require 
imported materials (sharp concrete sand usually according to one source) 
as they are in a high water table area with clayey soils.

> I'll try to get more information about the mound system.  I am aware that 
> temperature constraints in many parts of the world will mitigate against 
> the mound and near-surface leach fields, but I just wanted to point out 
> that there are possibilities.

If you've got incredible deep healthy soil the "usual" leachfield may 
also be OK.
Holmgren suggests that "A metre or two of free-draining, well-structured 
loam and clay loam soil can destroy pathogenic organisms in sewage 
water...Where such favourable soils exist, the much-maligned septic tank 
absorption systems work well." ('Permaculture', p. 107)

I reckon the vast majority of leachfields do not have anything near 
those conditions.

Plus it's still not optimum use of the nutrients in most cases - hard to 
apply leachfield leachings flexibly to your mulch basins and swales and 
so on as is possible with a graywater system designed for that.

John S.

--

John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
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