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Sceptic Tank inspection.
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06-02-2012 9:54pm#1Just reading about the proposed legislation regarding the sceptic tank inspections. I understand that only about 20% of tanks will be inspected and those that will be are in potential contamination areas.... whatever that means.
I am in an interesting position in that my tank, built in the 50's, is covered by two huge flat stone slabs that needed a tractor lift to open them for cleaning. Will the Inspectors bring that with them?
TT0
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Just reading about the proposed legislation regarding the sceptic tank inspections. I understand that only about 20% of tanks will be inspected and those that will be are in potential contamination areas.... whatever that means.
I am in an interesting position in that my tank, built in the 50's, is covered by two huge flat stone slabs that needed a tractor lift to open them for cleaning. Will the Inspectors bring that with them?
TT
Do you have a well for Drinking water on your land?
If so you could be causing you and your family a higher risk of cancer if the tank leaks.
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Do you have a well for Drinking water on your land?
If so you could be causing you and your family a higher risk of cancer if the tank leaks.
You will have to explain your mental leap from me highlighting my two large stone slabs to me potentially contaminating my land and my family?
TT0 -
Just reading about the proposed legislation regarding the sceptic tank inspections. I understand that only about 20% of tanks will be inspected and those that will be are in potential contamination areas.... whatever that means.
I am in an interesting position in that my tank, built in the 50's, is covered by two huge flat stone slabs that needed a tractor lift to open them for cleaning. Will the Inspectors bring that with them?
TT
its going to carnage this septic tank inspection lark, 80% of homes in mayo have tanks that are that old.
so do you legally have to allow the inspectors on your land?
i doubt they will bring a tractor. more than likely a light and a camera on a pole they drop down one of the pipes on the tank.0 -
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A few point there on that;
"septic tanks through regular emptying"
A working septic should never need to be emptied.
I paid over 4,000 euro for my treatment system even though none of the houses around me have them, including 2 built since, I have one of the dries sites around due to it been used for holding the stone while the railway line was been built.
I paid Mayo Co Co 4800 euro for development costs, I have 4 large potholes for 5 years on a very very busy road, I have filled them time after time.
I don't have lighting,
I don't have footpaths,
I don't have wired phoneline, if I want one I have to pay 900 euro to Mayo Co Co to cut a 10" line in the road, then get the hole due to take it off the pole and to the house.
I don't have a bin service, I have been lucky that a company has agree to take a detour off their route to service a few houses.
Where I live Irish rail upgraded the line, they tarmaced all along the fences where the water used to escape, so with any major rain there is a big flood.
I rang Mayo Co Co and told them this, they said "it wasn't an issue until you built your house, all the waste water off the road used to go onto your site"....
Not having a go or anything and apologise to the OP for going totally off topic.
I think only your first point relates to my post.
I was quoting what the Minister said yesterday in relation to the emptying. It's not quite true that "a working septic tank should never need emptying". You are close though. A working septic tank should need emptying very very rarely BUT there is always an amount of "solids" that will build up and sludge the tank over time. I do know of tanks where the washing machine, sinks, etc are piped into a spearate soakaway that have not been emptied in 20 years or more and are working away perfectly.
Never say "never"!!
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Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 16,724 Mod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 15163
I think only your first point relates to my post.
Never say "never"!!:D
Apologise yes! It was the only one!
My parents hasn't been touched in 30th years!!! Then again as you said the washing machine is out to a separate soak pit, while ours, which is on our planning permission, is into our tank!
This will rumble on and on, but as I said previously I won't be paying it, they can deduct it from the development fees I paid. 0 -
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Just reading about the proposed legislation regarding the sceptic tank inspections. I understand that only about 20% of tanks will be inspected and those that will be are in potential contamination areas.... whatever that means.
I am in an interesting position in that my tank, built in the 50's, is covered by two huge flat stone slabs that needed a tractor lift to open them for cleaning. Will the Inspectors bring that with them?
TT
i attended a meeting along with 600 others last night in coulty Limerick on the septic tank issue.
OP i can virtually guarantee you here and now that your 2 large concrete slabs will be the least of your worries.
probably 90% + of septic tanks throughout the country are not working properly,at least to the standards required by the EPA, who will ultimately have the final say on this.
just because grandad's 60 year old tank "appears" to be working properly is nonsense. the method of inspection here will be very modern indeed, a far cry from the old flashlamp in the hole inspection.!!
remedial works will be compulsory,problem is,at what cost.
no mention of a possible grant for these remedial works have come from the minister Phil Hogan.
the tank issue has been compared to the introduction on the NCT on cars 10 years ago. people were assured then that the NCT was just a directive from the EU which we had to obey.
yet when the contract was issued to a private contractor the situation changed completely. the NCT then became a cash-cow for the contractor who were virtually answerable to nobody. the inspection veered far away from merely the safety issues it was introcuced to address.
could we be in for a repeat on the septic tank issue?
do we trust the present government?
a government whose leader only last week described the ordinary Irish citizen as a mad borrower who sank this country.?
i would urge everyone not to register for this charge until such time as we have a concrete statement of what exact standard is required and exactly what % of the final cost can be retrieved via a grant.
this is not scare-mongering,i am all for clean water and a proper environment, but we are all entitled to the full facts here.0 -
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as for who will be doing the inspections i would imagine that just like the current percolation test system , the councils will form a panel
of approved inspectors , who would be engineers, architects, whoever that have done a course probably provided by the epa... id be surprised if the council did it themselves, i cant see them assuming responsibility for saying whether a system is working or not, theyd rather get an outside person to do that...
Firstly, Architects have no training in carrying out this sort of work - not having a go, just stating a fact! Remember, the inspection is likely to require the design of upgrades on many of the "legacy sites".
Secondly, the EPA will not be providing a course here. They are often mistaken as running the Site Suitability Assessment course, but it is FÁS that runs that one!
Thirdly, nobody seems to accept responsibility for anything at the minute. Local Authorities have panels of Site Assessors, but there is usually a disclaimer for the homeowner to do their own research before employing an assessor. The EPA Manual has a MASSIVE disclaimer in it.
Most Site Assessors do not have the relevant experience / qualifications / insurance cover to design an on-site wastewater treatment system. The key word here is design. An assessor's PI insurance for assessments does not extend to design or making design recommendations, as required in the EPA Code of Practice Site Characterisation Report Form. Now…who exactly is assuming responsibility for what?! What we do know for sure is that it is the end-user that is liable under statutory law. 0 -
Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 16,724 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 15163
The Engineer wrote: »This is not true. A working septic tank needs to be emptied regularly. How regularly "regularly" is depends on the loading from the house and the capacity and make up of the tank. As a good rule-of-thumb, the tank should be big enough to allow at least 2 years of sludge build-up, as anaerobic digestion will then kick in and make the overall process more efficient.
.
Well mine must be total magic then is it? We are in now heading for 8 years with ZERO issues, my parents tanks hasn't been emptied in 30 years.
My brother is 12 years in his house and the same.
Over the last few weeks I have spoken to many people who have been chatting about their tanks and I could give you another 5+ examples of tanks installed for 10 years without needing to be emptied.
So our "regular" is between 8 and 30 years 0 -
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Well mine must be total magic then is it? We are in now heading for 8 years with ZERO issues, my parents tanks hasn't been emptied in 30 years.
My brother is 12 years in his house and the same.
Over the last few weeks I have spoken to many people who have been chatting about their tanks and I could give you another 5+ examples of tanks installed for 10 years without needing to be emptied.
So our "regular" is between 8 and 30 years
When you say "ZERO issues", do you mean that the quality of effluent coming out at the back end of the tank is of a good enough quality to discharge to groundwater? Do you mean that your percolation area is perfectly sited, designed and constructed so as not to be even a remote risk to the environment? Or, do you mean that the tank is out of sight and out of mind and is receiving effluent when you flush the toilet, etc. and it's draining off somewhere?
In all seriousness Yop, when was the last time someone inspected the tank, reviewed it's structural integrity (i.e. checked for cracks, missing t-pieces, etc.) and measured the depth of the sludge layer? Has anyone ever checked out the quality of effluent leaving the second chamber of the tank (assuming that the tank is twin-chambered)? If the answer is never, then you cannot say that the system has given "zero issues", as there may be lots of environmental issues that you are unaware of.mallachyrivers wrote: »I just can't understand how a tank could be sceptical!
LOL! If you saw enough of these tanks, you'd understand!0 -
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Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 16,724 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 15163
The Engineer wrote: »When you say "ZERO issues", do you mean that the quality of effluent coming out at the back end of the tank is of a good enough quality to discharge to groundwater? Do you mean that your percolation area is perfectly sited, designed and constructed so as not to be even a remote risk to the environment? Or, do you mean that the tank is out of sight and out of mind and is receiving effluent when you flush the toilet, etc. and it's draining off somewhere?
In all seriousness Yop, when was the last time someone inspected the tank, reviewed it's structural integrity (i.e. checked for cracks, missing t-pieces, etc.) and measured the depth of the sludge layer? Has anyone ever checked out the quality of effluent leaving the second chamber of the tank (assuming that the tank is twin-chambered)? If the answer is never, then you cannot say that the system has given "zero issues", as there may be lots of environmental issues that you are unaware of.
LOL! If you saw enough of these tanks, you'd understand!
Listen, I am not having a go at you, but remember back in 1998, 1999 we had a load of IT head who were scaring people about the Y2K bug, they made millions as planes were going to crash, ATMs pump out money etc, but you know what it didn't happen and it wasn't because all the bugs were fixed, it was small issues on some servers and PC's, not every single software or hardware system. So as I said I am not making little of what you said as there is of course perfect logic in it, but it reminds me of that.
This just looks like this again. Are you honestly trying to tell me that there is some measurement out there that defines the parameters for the "perfectly treated sh1t3"? That someone will be there with a measure to know what they are at, and at the same time not have a "connection" who for those with concrete tanks, who can do a "For you today me do special offer" on a treatment system.
I paid 250 euro for an "independent" engineer to come out to do the percolation test, assigned by the Co Co, my own engineer and a friend who is an engineer said a figure 8 would be very sufficient as the site is very dry, but alas no. What is even funnier said engineer and this is fact, didn't even leave his car. As 2 neighbours noted his presence outside the house.
So that was the 250. I paid 4k euro+ for the treatment system.
I had an engineer I paid nearly 8k euro to sign it all off.
Now if that has issues it can come down on 1 of the 3 individuals above, not me or they can as I keep saying use my development tax to fund it.
I'll put it this way:
Has anyone inspected the 1000's of leaks on the public water schemes which is costing millions?
Can we take it that lucky towns who have public sewage schemes have perfect piped systems with no leaks at the joints etc......
Has anyone been inspecting the wards in our hospitals for bugs and where people are dying on trollies?
As I said I am not having a go at you, I am just commenting on the text and the checks that you as well as I know will never ever be carried out.
They will hook people in then bend them over year after year.
I am not a tax dodger, I am self employed and pay my VAT and tax on time ever 2 months/year but on these 2 taxes they are nothing but stealth to feed the bondholders. If they were brought in 10 years ago with the sole reasoning of ensuring that septic tanks complied for ENVIRONMENTAL reasons or to support the local councils then fair enough, but even bosco knows that this is going straight out to Europe.
Out of interest, your last line of "LOL! If you saw enough of these tanks, you'd understand!"..... does that mean you inspect tanks, hence it could offer employment to you???
Once again its not a personal attack on you, its just my opinion.
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