Domestic wastewater treatment plant vs. deep well. What’s worth knowing?

All households produce a large amount of domestic wastewater. The best way to manage them is to connect the house to the sewage system. In some areas, however, this is impossible. The solution may be the construction of a deep well or a domestic sewage treatment plant.

Despite the fact that many areas lack a connected municipal sewage system, developers decide to build houses there anyway, because such a problem can be solved in several ways. The most convenient is to build a deep well or a domestic sewage treatment plant. We look at both solutions.

Domestic wastewater treatment plant

When building a domestic sewage treatment plant, we must remember to maintain the appropriate distances:

• property boundary or road: 2 m from the settling tank and 2 m from the drain,
• single-family house: 5 m from the drain,
• trees and shrubs: 3 m from the drain,
• groundwater: 1.5 m from the drainage,
• electric cables: 0.8 m from the settling tank, 0.8 m from the drain,
• pipelines with gas, water: 1.5 m from the settling tank, 1.5 m from the drainage,
• well: 15 m from the settling tank, 30 m from the drain.

The project for the construction of a domestic sewage treatment plant should be marked already on the plot plan, so that when applying for a building permit for the construction of a house you do not have to meet any additional formalities.

The biggest advantage of a domestic sewage treatment plant is low operating costs. The wastewater treatment plant is much cheaper than a septic tank, because we pay only for the consumption of electricity, needed to drive the pump.

A domestic sewage treatment plant also features a long warranty from the manufacturer. What may be important for its users is that its operation and use do not require specialized knowledge. We only need to take care of supplying enzymes and bacteria to the sewer system and disposing of the sludge that forms in the tank.

In addition, domestic treatment plants are environmentally friendly. Thanks to them we can be sure that harmful sewage does not enter the soil near the house.

Deep well

Another good solution in the absence of access to the network is the construction of a deep well, which we can describe as a dug or drilled hole in the ground, reaching the aquifer. More and more people are choosing to install a well, as it can bring great financial benefits in the short term.

Not only is its cost of construction low, but its subsequent operation does not involve high fees. The only expense may be the cost of electricity needed to drive the pump. Another advantage of the well is the quality of the water. Thanks to a large number of filter layers, the water is clean, chlorine-free and contains a number of microelements that positively affect our body (unlike water from water pipes).

When building a deep well, we must remember that:

• the distance between the well and the border of the plot is not less than 5 m,
• the distance of the well to the axis of the roadside ditch is not less than 7.5 m,
• the distance of the well to livestock buildings and associated tanks for the collection of waste, compost and the like is not less than 15 m,
• the distance of the well to the nearest dissolving pipe of the individual sewage system was not less than 30 m.

A well with a depth of up to 30 m requires only a notification.

main photo: pixabay.com/Gio Gix