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When a person buys a house, car, computer or almost anything of any complexity, there are always upgrades available. They usually cost much less than the item itself, but they can bring significant benefits to the consumer.
A septic system is no different. It’s an appliance whose proper functioning is so much taken for granted that most people don’t give it much thought. As a result, when designers get an order for a system, the mentality of the owner is typically minimalist: the person wants to “get away” with the least disruption to the property, the least space used, the least care and maintenance and the lowest cost possible.
Yes, we all want those things, but the problem is this: Those same people also want the septic system to work properly, get rid of the sewage, not hurt the environment, have no backups or odors and, generally, not interfere with their daily lives.
Unfortunately, the fact is that a minimal system cannot at the same time provide maximum performance. At least occasionally, and sometimes frequently, a system that only meets the minimum standards will not perform to the owner’s long-term satisfaction.
An effective way of reaching a happy medium is to include a few septic system upgrades when it is first designed and installed. While these upgrades take extra space, time and money, they can pay big dividends to the visionary property owner. Over time, these upgrades can more than pay for themselves in time and attention that the homeowner would have to give to a failing system, in money and in personal consternation.
Here are just a few common upgrades available for almost any conventional (gravel trench) system.

Bigger Tank
Septic tank volume added on to the legal minimum is relatively cheap. For example, installing a 1,250 or 1,500 gallon tank instead of a minimally required 1,000 gallon tank usually costs little more. But doing so increases the retention time for the sewage to be broken down and gives a significant decrease in the frequency that the tank has to be cleaned.

Larger Drainfield
While the larger tank needs pumping less frequently, it has nothing to do with actually getting rid of the wastewater. The drainfield does that. Therefore, increasing the size of a drainfield is always a good idea. If a contractor already has equipment and a crew on site, an increase in drainfield size is relatively cheap. Installing 250 feet of line where the law requires only 200 gives the property owner that much more insurance that the system will accept and safely return to the environment all the wastewater from the home or business.

Effluent Filter
Recall that the purpose of the tank is to collect the solids, thereby allowing the liquids to go to the drainfield for disposal. If too many solids consistently escape the tank, they can clog and ruin the drainfield. These solids plug the holes in the pipes in the drainfield, clog up the gravel or other media, and stop the soils from absorbing water by clogging the voids between the soil particles.
The simple effluent filter consists of a screen placed within the tank on the outlet pipe. It reduces solids outflow and thus can save thousands of dollars in drainfield repair or replacement. (Of course, these filters must be regularly cleaned.)

Pressurized Drainfield
Many drainfields receive effluent by gravity flow from a single entry point. The problem is that the slow incoming flow through a 4-inch-diameter pipe gathers at one spot in the drainfield and saturates that spot before finally moving to the adjacent area. All the while, the rest of the drainfield sits dormant.
If the effluent is pressurized and forced through small-diameter pipes, it comes into contact with the entire drainfield. This avoids the saturation of any one spot and allows the soil to rest properly between doses. Thus the drainfield’s efficiency is enhanced and effluent is treated more effectively. This is better for the environment, and it also increases system longevity. A pressurized system typically doses the drainfield-that is, a pump delivers small, regularly spaced, equal amounts of water to the drainfield.

Observation Ports
An observation port is simply a pipe built into the drainfield through which a person can peer down and see the liquid levels at any given moment. That may not seem pleasant, but it does give the property owner or septic system evaluator an idea of how well the drainfield is working. Ideally, liquid levels are always low because the drainfield is absorbing water into the soils. But observation ports make it easy to make that assessment and save an evaluator from having to excavate into the drainfield-possibly damaging it in the process-to get that information.

Flow Equalization
Septic tanks need time to do their job. Ideally, 24 hours in a quiet state inside a septic tank allows septic bacteria to break sewage solids down into liquids. But many septic systems face erratic flows, from zero at some times to heavy flows at others. This upsets the quiet state in the tank and can cause short circuiting, in which previously deposited sewage is pushed out of the tank by fresher, incoming sewage before it has had 24 hours of digestion and stabilization.
To meet the ideal retention time in a tank, one can install a flow equalization tank (with a pump in it) in front of the septic tank. This unit catches the variable flows from the house and doses them into the tank. All septic systems work much better and last much longer if the sewage is introduced in this manner. The tradeoff is the extra cost of a tank and pump, plus the space needed for this extra appliance.

Tank Risers or Markers
All septic tanks have to be pumped out every few years. To clean the tank, the pumper must first locate it. A marker indicating the location of the tank lid comes in handy: The pumper can go directly to the tank without searching for it, saving time and saving the owner’s money. Additionally, a riser keeps the pumper from having to dig-at extra charge-to remove the lid.

Sampling/Chemical Ports
A cleanout of the kind placed within three feet of the wall of a home can also be placed at the septic tank outlet. This is a good place for a system evaluator to see if any back-up is occurring from the drainfield. Most systems, if they’re going to fail, back up from the drainfield to the tank before they back up from the tank to the house. Viewing down that port can give a hint of how the drainfield is doing. Additionally, it gives a system evaluator a place to pull a sample for chemical or biological analysis. Finally, if a drainfield is suffering from root intrusion, the port allows adding remediation chemicals.

Turn-ups in Drainfield Lines
A turn-up is a plastic pipe that extends the drainfield perforated piping to the surface. It is non-perforated and simply provides easy access to the perforated pipes for chemical or physical repair or drainfield remediation.

Distribution Boxes
A distribution box can be placed at the outlet of the septic tank to split the liquid flow into two or more portions, which can be piped to different portions of the drainfield. This division of flow spreads the load out over the drainfield and allows it to work better and last longer. Sometimes flow to the drainfield can be split simply by using plastic T’s and X’s and multiple connections to the same drainfield.

Dual Pumps
Anytime a system uses any type of pump, always consider dual pumps. Of course, this costs more, but it gives much more assurance that the owner will have uninterrupted service. If one pump dies, the other takes over until the first can be replaced.
Other upgrades are available. Most suggestions here apply to standard gravel systems, but all types have a variety of potential upgrades. Designers, installers and homeowners should weigh the cost of upgrades against the advantages of long-range owner satisfaction, effects on home resale value, and the efficiency and life of the system.

Frank Aguirre is the owner of Septic Systems Express, a design company in San Antonio, Texas. He can be reached at 210/490-9780
This article found in Onsite Installer magazine Feb 2004

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