Septic tanks are small storage and treatment facilities for human waste that are used for homes that do not have access to a sewer system. Urine and feces from a household flow into the tanks, which send the liquid into a drainfield and collect the solids. A waste management service removes the solid waste from the tanks. Septic tanks are complicated devices, and above-ground systems have several vital components.
The Tank
The tank is a vital portion of a septic system because it filters and stores waste until the it is emptied. In general, liquids drain into another chamber of the tank through a piping system, where it is further processed with the use of anaerobic bacteria. Solid waste drops to the bottom of the tank, where it collects. The amount of sewage the tank can hold varies depending on its size. An average tank can hold between 1,000 and 2,000 gallons of material and needs to be emptied every few years.
Drainage Pipe
Once the liquid waste has been separated from the solids and partially treated with anaerobic bacteria, a drainage pipe runs the liquid out of the tank and into a trench, where millions of bacteria await to feed on it. In the trench, the liquid effluent runs across specially shaped rocks to help filter it further. The effluent then needs to be spread into the surrounding soil.
Trench Piping
Once the effluent leaves the tank and runs down the drainage pipe into the trench, it needs to be spread out into the drainfield. If it all collects in one area, the soil cannot properly absorb it. There are smaller pipes in the trench that run from the trench into the dirt to spread the effluent out into various different areas in the drainfield so the soil is all being treated with it equally. The bacteria in the soil can therefore thrive. Gravity is the traditional way of guiding the effluent out of the drainage pipe and into the trench so it can be spread but a pump is occasionally used depending on the distance between the tank and the drainfield.
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