Septic tank breather pipe

[do_it_yourself]

hello,

is there any danger of damage to my septic tank system if water flows into the breather pipe?

after the bad floods recently a huge amount of water was flowing down my breather pipe into the septic tank.

anyone familiar with septics?

 

[mrgas]

I am not familiar with septics but i doubt water entering the system will do too much harm after all the vast majority of a septic tanks contents are already water.

 

[Burnerman]

No problems with that one....the tanks can handle excess water. If you have an outlet chamber with a lid, this needs to be dry...it indicates that the soakaway is doing what its supposed to do. Don't let solids go down the outlet pipe! Pump out before it gets that full.
John

 

[wastetech]

I am afraid that it does matter if a lot of excess water gets into a septic tank system in the same way that roof water is not allowed to go into the septic tank.

The problem is that the septic tank is carefully sized in accordance with BS 6297 to allow a certain retention time for the sewage in the tank in order that settlement of gross solids can occur.

By 'flushing through' with flood water, the solids don't have enough time to settle out and you run a great risk of them exiting the tank and entering the soakaway. If this happens, then you are in trouble as the soakaway will eventually become blocked and you will need to install a new one. They are not cheap, so do your best to keep the flood water out by lengthening the breather pipe to above the water level.

Waste Tech Environmental Ltd.

 

[Nige F]

Carefully sized Most EXISTING ones are nowt more than a brick pit with an overflow ...in effect a glorified cess pit . IF it`s a fiberglass structure ( can be seen under manhole lid.) Then the is a chance it`s a proper B.S one

 

[wastetech]

We survey hundreds of septic tanks every year and actually, when you measure them, most of the old brick-built septic tanks are uncannily close to the size required by current regulations.

Those old boys who built them were not as stupid as some people think.