Just like any other functioning part of your home, it is important to ensure your wastewater system is functioning as intended and also meeting all of the necessary criteria required to be considered compliant with current rules and legislation.

The 2020 General Binding Rules gives us the criteria of what needs to be achieved for your sewage treatment plant to be compliant.

Here at R A Dalton we provide comprehensive visual septic tank inspections which are carried out by our contracts managers who have a wealth of experience on wastewater design and specification along with the corresponding knowledge of the the associated current rules, regulations and guidance that need to be met.

If there are any elements of the visual inspection that are deemed to be inconclusive as to the system’s function and compliance we are able to arrange for additional CCTV surveys, dye tests, emptying and jetting which will enable an even more detailed evaluation to be undertaken of what is not visible to the naked eye.

If an inspection is carried out and your septic tank is deemed to be non-compliant then first you must evaluate the issues being highlighted, this will help to indicate the remedial action required.

In October 2022 we attended a property in County Durham for a customer who was looking to sell their property, as part of the sale process confirmation of what was installed and its suitability was essential.

During the site inspection a number of issues were highlighted which included but was not limited to:

• The tank was located amongst overgrown rushes making it difficult to find and access for maintenance/ emptying purposes.
• At the time of inspection the tank levels were extremely high which inhibited our ability to fully check the structural integrity of the unit, this was also a red flag to more issues being experienced.
• The outlet of the septic tank was also flooded with standing effluent visible from the ground, this was further evidence to more severe issues being experienced with the soakaway.
• The area in which the original soakaway was installed was entirely unsuitable with poor draining ground conditions.

With all of the above details in mind a workable solution needed to be identified and actioned to achieve compliance with the 2020 General Binding Rules.

To bring the property back in line with the necessary rules and regulations, it was important that the new sewage treatment design took into account the issues experienced with the old unit.

It was abundantly clear that a soakaway was not going to be a workable solution due to the poor ground porosity and the fact that the original set up had failed based on the wet conditions on site.

We proposed the new system would be installed in the top section of the field therefore we proposed to install a new Clenviro CLF1a to suit the 5 bedroom property, this unit was our preferred choice due to the ease of installation and also the location may require a heavier duty lid in the long run.

However, the customer opted at this time to install a new stock fence to surround the unit and to protect it from livestock and animals in the field.

With the new system installed, compliance had officially been achieved.