Dumping Tanks in an Empty Full Service Site
Last week I was staying in a full service site in a national park. The park has hundreds of sites, only about a third of which are full service. The rest of the park shares 2 dump stations which are a...
Forum Discussion
WTP-GC wrote:You need to make up your mind. When I gave a description of a typical septic system you said you have consulted and built systems for decades and never have seen one like I described. Now you are describing systems you have built and they are EXACTLY the same as I laid out earlier. You are even saying that systems have to be designed differently depending upon the anticipated loads. The implication in your "multi-use" facility system is that if the system was designed only for normal bathroom loads, the addition of dishwashers and laundry facilities would overload the system.Lantley wrote:WTP-GC wrote:westernrvparkowner wrote:
Apparently you have no comprehension regarding septic systems. That 3" or 4" pipe leads to a holding tank and all the solids settle to the bottom and the liquids flow thru perforated 1 inch pipes into the drain fields. To determine how much area those perforated pipes must cover the engineer performs a percolation test. They then use a formula that takes the percolation performance and the amount of liquid anticipated to determine the size of the drain field. Far exceed that liquid amount and the liquid doesn't seep into the ground and instead forms pools of waste water on the surface. As I previously posted many parks have several septic systems and the systems tied to full hookup sites are designed to process that waste, not the waste of multiple dumps in a rapid succession.
One of the interesting parts of this thread is very common throughout the forum in general: people believe certain things to be universal in nature. And this comment above is extremely indicative of that mindset.
As a matter of fact, I've spent my entire career, over many years, designing, building, expanding and consulting with people about their sewer systems. Don't make the mistake believing that your onsite treatment system in Montana is equitable to every other campground out there (as your comment suggests). The description of your system is different that every other system I've been involved with, so...
If it makes you feel any better we have those same drain field systems in Maryland. MD is a long way from Montana somehow drain field technology made it this far.
The general concept behind a basic septic system is piping into it, holding tank (for septage processing) and piping out to a drain field. Beyond that, there are nearly endless configurations, pipe sizes, drain field design, etc. based on location, code, and other factors. I’ve been to South America where the also have similar septic system designs, but their drain field arrangement was remarkably different. The point is that septic systems may look the same at the most basic level, but they vary greatly. I’ve worked with folks who have septic systems at their multi-use facilities, and their systems had to be designed to accept the dumping flow of dishwashers and laundry facilities all at once, plus the normal bathroom loads.
As I mentioned in an earlier comment...if no rules against it...
That is exactly what I was pointing out in regards to a system designed for full hookup RV sites. They are designed for the loads generated by the RVs in those sites, not for the additional loads of multiple RVs dumping. The dump station in many parks has it's own set of tanks and drain fields designed to handle that load. It is a very common design for RV park waste systems.
