What's the point of ditches?

[Pa Snip]

there are four properties below me that never have to empty their septic tanks, or chess pits. I don't know the difference.

Is a chess pit somewhere you throw the pieces if you played a crap game

All this talk about dodgy septic tanks is reminding me of a song for some reason, its a sort of "slurry with a whinge on top" moment

Amazing how a question about ditches becomes a full blown discussion about holes in a septic tank. We work in wondrous ways.

[richard p]

a cess pit is purely a holding tank , all the brown waste should go into it , when its full it needs physical emptying.

a septic tank is normally a two chambered tank again for brown waste but normally the grey goes in aswell, clean rainwater from roofs etc should go elsewhere, bacterial action in the septic tank breaks down the organic matter, excess fluid goes to a soak away or drain field...a land drain in reverse.. fluid leaving the tank should be of low biological activity. ours are block built installed in the late sixties. with straight single soak aways.... basically a run of clay land drain pipes. the official guidance has been that the tanks should be sucked out to remove the sediment every year. the one on our 5 bed bungalow was last done in the mid eighties. general practice in a rural area is for a local farmer so do the job and spread the effluent on the fields along with his animal waste. totally illegal , you need a hazardous waste license and have to take it to the sewage works..... when the local overloaded sewage works gets bunged up they dig it out and it gets spread on arable fields with a requirement for it to be ploughed in within a few days.
weve got an onion type on a mobile home thats not been emptied since it was installed 30 years ago.


increasingly now the local authority are insisting on installment of treatment plants... basically a septic tank with blown air to increase the efficiency of the bacterial action.

one of our neighbours is about to extensivly refurbish an old timber bungalow... officialdom says they cant use the septic tank thats worked fine for the last fifty years , a new treatment plant has to be installed. my understanding is theyre being bullied into unneccessary works by officials representing recommendations for new build on a new site as legal reqirements for a refurbishment of an existing building.

[Ricard with an H]

I must have a chess pit but everyone calls it a septic tank. Other than a basket at the top that seems to be designed to catch fats it's just a tank with an entry, an escape for grey water, a bolt down lid and that is it.

I'm mostly concerned about my cess pit filling with rain water during high rain periods rather than any bio-hazard. Sheep that die are left on the land to rot and feed the wildlife and every building around the valley probably produces bio-waste into the water table.

I'll post a photo I have of the valley even though it's the opposite side. You'll then perhaps understand. I'm working on my iPad at the moment and the photos are in the desktop Mac.

Thanks Richard.
Later-then.

[Ricard with an H]

Views over the other side of the valley illustrating how we are dotted about and then the farmhouse we used to be attached too but you can't really see our barn, it's hidden. What you can see is my blokes shed to the right of the photo with the Velux windows. Our barn conversion is just behind the farmhouse in this photo.

[alan refail]

Sheep that die are left on the land to rot and feed the wildlife

Pembrokeshire seems a lawless area

Leaving fallen stock in the fields is illegal now, and it is certainly not acceptable to leave them for wildlife to eat.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fallen-stock#fallen-stock

That's moved the thread even further away from the purpose of ditches.

[dan3008]

Sheep that die are left on the land to rot and feed the wildlife

Leaving fallen stock in the fields is illegal now

And yet round me in the peek district its standard practice... Of course, most the dead sheep around here walked (or were pushed) over an edge and are in areas inaccessible to humans

[alan refail]

http://www.fwi.co.uk/news/farmer-left-d ... fields.htm

[Ricard with an H]

We always report dead sheep, often the farmer has ignored them long enough that nothing is left.

My last dog Molly who died two/three years ago was feeding on a dead animal just before she died, we asked the farmer and the vet who deals with that farmer if the dead sheep may have been responsible. Vacant faces.

Badgers are routinely found laying in the roadside so they look like road kill, but on single track roads that used to be farm tracks so not much traffic, same with the fox though I sympathise about the loss of lambs to the fox.

Sorry the thread has drifted so far, my joining with the issue of land drainage seemed to fit.

[alan refail]

Richard

Your poor Molly was at the back of my mind when I was posting that last comment.

[Ricard with an H]

Richard

Your poor Molly was at the back of my mind when I was posting that last comment.

Thank you Alan, I still grieve.

Also was the issue of random scattering of rat poison, but I live n a farm and have to accept that.

[richard p]

30 years ago you could legally bury dead livestock or phone the local hunt kennels, now your supposed to pay for incineration. is it any wonder wildlife finds dead sheep before the owner?

its the same with rubbish , make disposal difficult or expensive and you get more fly tipping.

[Ricard with an H]

I can see that whilst we may know that procedures are not being adhered too if you live in a rural environment it helps you understand why things happen the way they do though to be honest about this my immediate neighbours that like me are in-comers continually try to emulate suburban/urban gardens, rules, attitudes etc-etc. The people living a mile away from me have complained about cockerels crowing, the noise from a gas bird scarer and smells from the fields. People in the farmhouse next to me were ecstatic when they first moved in to their farmhouse but now complain about smells, holes in the road which is a farm track and a private road, noise on Sunday. Other friends who are in-comers complain about the noise and the mess the cows make as they parade from grazing to the milking sheds.

On the minor roads that were just farm tracks until adopted it is usual for two passing tractors to stop for a chat, if you bump into them it's polite though sometimes irritating to be patient whilst they discuss whatever they are discussing.

When it comes to building and the land we have Pembrokeshire-ways and whilst some need adjusting we have to ask ourselves as in-comers why we came though why they build banks across the slope of the land without first placing a stone base that allows water through and they then moan about rainwater getting trapped and pooling is anyone's guess. All the original Pembrokeshire boundary-banks were first built with the stone in the fields
I guess it's the in-coming builders and developers who buy up old farms and land but never go too school on the matters they deal with.

[Johnboy]

Richard,
When I moved here 38 years ago I had a small septic tank with a family of 7. The tank needed emptying every two months with so many mishaps something had to be done quickly.
My septic tank is composed of a first settlement tank 2500 gallons a second settlement tank of 1800 gallons a 12 ft sand filter which is a divided chamber and the filter is 6ft down then through pipes and 6ft up and then passes to a sump with a submersible pump serving a 300ft herring bone outlet which is fully rodable. It has never been emptied since day one but about every 2 years I have the sand filter sucked out and the sand replaced. Each settlement chamber has an air-inwards valve which prevents any spurious odours.
Over the top you might think well maybe but when my immediate family get together there are always about 25 people mainly for the weekend and it copes very well. The 300ft herringbone outlet is laid on 2ft of peashingle and 1ft above then covered with waterproof material to prevent soil mixing with the peashingle. It finishes at least 2ft below the level of the ditch and nearing 400 ft from it.
I touch wood when I say the sumbersible pump is still the original. I have never needed to do any rodding yet.
All the tanks are of reinforced concrete 9" thick. I designed it at built it myself with the help of the then L.A. building inspector.
It has been copied several times in the surrounding district over the years but sadly no more because of an European ruling on septic tanks and outlets. It cost me a fortune to build at the time but all things are relative and I understand to have it entirely emptied it would cost £85 per 1000 gallons plus VAT. To suck out the sand filter costs £25 because the old sand stays here. (Illegally probably now)
JB.

[Ricard with an H]

Whilst we have digressed from the initial post the subject has been of great interest to me together with some very useful information.

JB, thanks. You must know I'm a five days a week batchelor and we rarely have visitors. My needs could be serviced by a chemical potty, even so I try to encourage any close neighbour to join me in an annual emptying-session. At £60 an emptying it's cheap but neighbours like to hang on until the soil pipes are backing up to thier house. Bizarre eh ?