# Utility sink with septic system?



## lml999 (May 9, 2018)

Two years ago we moved to a house with a septic system and well water.

Until then I always washed up maintenance items (latex paint brushes/rollers, citrus solvent for bike cleaning, etc) in a utility sink, which fed into town sewer.

Now that i'm on a septic system, I'm concerned about putting anything into the system that isn't (human-processed) food waste.

The system is 20 years old, has been cleaned recently (no issues found, just a lot of crap!), and is sized for a 4 bedroom house. We probably run more water through it than we should...there's typically two of us in the house...but we run dishwasher and washing machine a couple of times a week...

How do others handle this?

Thanks!


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## Highbeam (May 9, 2018)

lml999 said:


> Two years ago we moved to a house with a septic system and well water.
> 
> Until then I always washed up maintenance items (latex paint brushes/rollers, citrus solvent for bike cleaning, etc) in a utility sink, which fed into town sewer.
> 
> ...



None of that goes into the septic. You are right to protect it.


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## MAD777 (May 9, 2018)

Thanks for posting this Iml999
I'm about to start building a new home with well/septic system and a utility sink. Being a city slicker, I probably would have cleaned such stuff without a thought. 

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## lml999 (May 9, 2018)

MAD777 said:


> Thanks for posting this Iml999
> I'm about to start building a new home with well/septic system and a utility sink. Being a city slicker, I probably would have cleaned such stuff without a thought.



You're welcome. Might want to leave out the utility sink...looks like the only thing its good for is washing the dog!


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## peakbagger (May 9, 2018)

The problem is its a question that the authorities do not really want to answer. Yes the chemicals can be bad for the septic system but even worse in the ground. The old standard is the solution to pollution is dilution. In theory the volume of nasties is overwhelmed by the volume of normal waste. When I built my garage, I wanted to put in drain and the inspector would not let me unless is was piped to an accepted treatment device. When I asked him what an approved device is he didnt know of any. An oil and water separator wouldn't be that hard to build with an accessible cleanout. and then running it to a separate dry well located away and downhill from your well would be good option.

il water separators arent that expensive http://www.usaequipmentdirect.com/Z...MI9L2KkoX52gIVA0CGCh2lvAlbEAYYBCABEgJ1xPD_BwE


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## lml999 (May 9, 2018)

peakbagger said:


> The problem is its a question that the authorities do not really want to answer....
> 
> [stuff snipped]
> 
> An oil and water separator wouldn't be that hard to build with an accessible cleanout. and then running it to a separate dry well located away and downhill from your well would be good option



I'm reluctant to put anything in the ground...all of Cape Cod is served by a single aquifer, and while my actions alone won't have a significant impact, it does add up.

So it's looking like I'll have to come up with some form of contained, above ground approach...and limit use of anything that isn't easily retained and disposed of. Of course, even if I take used paint rollers to the dump, they end up in the ground somewhere...


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## semipro (May 9, 2018)

I'd be interested to see what real effects these chemicals would have on septic tank contents and the effluent going to the drain field. 
In quantities not large enough to significantly kill off resident microbial populations I suspect that the nasty stuff is biodegraded to something relatively harmless. 
Trouble is, how do you know if this is true and how much chemical waste upsets proper system operation?


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## peakbagger (May 9, 2018)

Oil tends to float and nothing much will break it down. Soaps tend to break down. Water softener brine apparently raises havoc. Chlorine bleach can really raise havoc.


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## lml999 (May 10, 2018)

peakbagger said:


> Water softener brine apparently raises havoc.



Not sure how to deal with the periodic backwashing of our water treatment system. Right now it empties into the house plumbing, and then, of course into the septic system.


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## lml999 (May 10, 2018)

semipro said:


> I'd be interested to see what real effects these chemicals would have on septic tank contents and the effluent going to the drain field.
> In quantities not large enough to significantly kill off resident microbial populations I suspect that the nasty stuff is biodegraded to something relatively harmless.
> Trouble is, how do you know if this is true and how much chemical waste upsets proper system operation?



I understand what you're saying...

Given the cost of rebuilding/replacing a septic system, I'm not willing to experiment to find this out. 

And with an N of 1, my experiment wouldn't be valid anyway!


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## blades (May 10, 2018)

used to be that we would run 2 systems  one for grey water ( washing machine and such ) and the actual waste Line) Most of the Grey water could be handled by a large sand filter and then used for watering purposes ect( not potable water)  here in the infinite wisdom? of the powers that be everything in one. ( Cow paddies)  so now you load up your septic with man made soaps that do not breakdown and other items  and basically destroy your septic in 20 years or less.  Got to purchase septic friendly products when at store and various female sanitary items are a no-no as they do not break down. also from your washer you should run a lint filter on the output as a lot of clothes are man made fibers that again do not breakdown and clog the system up ( which is likely the reason they also mandated a minimum 3 year pumping cycle.) my current system is 28 years old only showing normal wear and tear.  Just maybe it might out last me.  Oh ya - TP is one of the big culprits, but there are brands septic friendly- just got to read the labels


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## MAD777 (May 10, 2018)

Anyone have a source to read about bio-degradable laundry, dishwasher, bath soaps & dish detergents?
I would think there's no practical way to keep these items out of the septic system. 

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## blades (May 10, 2018)

just google it should come up or use a term like compatible x products with septic system.


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## moey (May 10, 2018)

Ive lived in two homes both which were extremely sandy. Septic fields in one of the homes is some 50 years old now still works fine. Ours currently is 35 years old never had a problem. I think a lot of it has to do with what is under your system more then what you put in it.


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## moey (May 10, 2018)

blades said:


> Got to purchase septic friendly products when at store and various female sanitary items are a no-no as they do not break down. also from your washer you should run a lint filter on the output as a lot of clothes are man made fibers that again do not breakdown and clog the system up ( which is likely the reason they also mandated a minimum 3 year pumping cycle.) my current system is 28 years old only showing normal wear and tear.  Just maybe it might out last me.  Oh ya - TP is one of the big culprits, but there are brands septic friendly- just got to read the labels



I can imagine how that conversation would go. Honey please put your nasty used tampon in the trash don't flush it down the toilet or change it at work. They float to the top of the tank when its pumped out you can see them floating they never make it to the field. Ive always got our system pumped out every 2-3 years. Its like $200 I can save money somewhere else when it comes to home maintenance.


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## lml999 (May 10, 2018)

moey said:


> I can imagine how that conversation would go. Honey please put your nasty used....



Yep. And then picture having a conversation with your adult children and their friends....

"No cotton, no latex, no ..."

Been there, done that...every time they visit...


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## moey (May 11, 2018)

lml999 said:


> Yep. And then picture having a conversation with your adult children and their friends....
> 
> "No cotton, no latex, no ..."
> 
> Been there, done that...every time they visit...



The only thing Ive ever said was flushable wipes are not actually flushable so stop buying them.


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## brenndatomu (May 11, 2018)

Well here is one way to look at it...the bacteria that make a septic system work are the same ones that are in your gut...where do you think they came from in the first place? So anything that would cause problems in your gut, should not get flushed or put down the drain...


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## Highbeam (May 15, 2018)

Very rarely will you ever see a product not advertised as biodegradable since everything will biodegrade eventually. "Septic safe" is also not defined, nor is flushable. All of this is marketing talk and you are on your own to avoid putting the wrong thing or too much of the right thing into your septic system. It's not the tank you need to worry about, it's the drainfield becoming plugged with spooge that doesn't allow water to pass through and then your system backs up.

Don't route your softener to the septic tank. It's not the brine as much as the huge volume of water that the drainfield was not designed for.

I have a shop utility sink and I hooked the drain line up to the roof downspout line that just dumps out onto the lawn. Washing dogs, making beer, hand washing, etc. Never dump chemicals down a drain unless it goes to the city sewer and even then, the city sewer folks will tell you it is illegal.


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## blades (May 16, 2018)

Highbeam - here we are not allowed to run anything out  over the top except the gutters ( I do not agree with this) that includes the softener out put. I can see some of this in the city but certainly not out here in the sticks. Government and their 1 size fits all mentality- less that adequate.


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## Ashful (May 16, 2018)

lml999 said:


> Of course, even if I take used paint rollers to the dump, they end up in the ground somewhere...



New Jersey.


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## Ashful (May 16, 2018)

moey said:


> I can imagine how that conversation would go. Honey please put your nasty used tampon in the trash don't flush it down the toilet or change it at work. They float to the top of the tank when its pumped out you can see them floating they never make it to the field. Ive always got our system pumped out every 2-3 years. Its like $200 I can save money somewhere else when it comes to home maintenance.



We had that conversation.  My wife keeps a small hospital type (metal lid that flips up when you step on foot pedal) trash can in the master bath, for that special purpose.  We don’t sweat what guests will do, their numbers aren’t significant in comparison to someone living in the house full-time.


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## lml999 (May 16, 2018)

Ashful said:


> We had that conversation.  My wife keeps a small hospital type (metal lid that flips up when you step on foot pedal) trash can in the master bath, for that special purpose.  We don’t sweat what guests will do, their numbers aren’t significant in comparison to someone living in the house full-time.



Don't have that issue. Now we're dealing with hot flashes...

Guests, though...

The trash can with a metal lid is a good idea. Our dog loves to rummage in trash cans...


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## Highbeam (May 18, 2018)

blades said:


> Highbeam - here we are not allowed to run anything out  over the top except the gutters ( I do not agree with this) that includes the softener out put. I can see some of this in the city but certainly not out here in the sticks. Government and their 1 size fits all mentality- less that adequate.



I suspect that the government wouldn’t like my solution either. If you’re really out in the sticks then you know what to do. Your septic wasn’t designed for the huge flows from a softener or the chemicals that may go into a shop sink like paint.

When you wash your car doesn’t that water go onto the surface? The government probably wouldn’t approve of peeing off the back porch either.


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## begreen (May 18, 2018)

Highbeam said:


> Never dump chemicals down a drain unless it goes to the city sewer and even then, the city sewer folks will tell you it is illegal.


Never do it. Cities around Puget Sound don't have the treatment capacity to filter this stuff out, especially pharmaceuticals and drugs. They are showing up in alarming numbers in local fish and sealife now.


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## Highbeam (May 18, 2018)

begreen said:


> Never do it. Cities around Puget Sound don't have the treatment capacity to filter this stuff out, especially pharmaceuticals and drugs. They are showing up in alarming numbers in local fish and sealife now.



We do have the ability to remove many things but those drugs could just as easily have passed through a human and been deposited conventionally. Not the issue here but perhaps stop taking pharmaceuticals and drugs! I’m having a hard time putting this into words. The drugs are going to make it into the sewer or septic, can’t stop it so long as people are eating them.


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## RobbieB (May 19, 2018)

What?  Stop taking your heart and BP medicine and just die?

Yeah that will solve the problem for sure...


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## Highbeam (May 19, 2018)

RobbieB said:


> What?  Stop taking your heart and BP medicine and just die?
> 
> Yeah that will solve the problem for sure...



It will solve the problem of these chemicals in the waste stream. Of course, not all of us take medications...yet.

As far as the utility sink. I use it to wash my hands and my pug. Some dishes and some cooling water. Nothing I fear dumping on the lawn.


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## begreen (May 19, 2018)

Highbeam said:


> We do have the ability to remove many things but those drugs could just as easily have passed through a human and been deposited conventionally. Not the issue here but perhaps stop taking pharmaceuticals and drugs! I’m having a hard time putting this into words. The drugs are going to make it into the sewer or septic, can’t stop it so long as people are eating them.


Actually a few systems are much more effective than others. Not perfect, but much better. They do tertiary treatment via anaerobic digestion. Tacoma and the KC Renton plant have these facilities. Trouble is that most smaller municipalities and unincorporated areas only do secondary treatment. All the more reason to not dump stuff down the drain.


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## Ashful (May 19, 2018)

So.... what do you folks do with your paint thinner?  Anti-freeze?  All of the other chemicals you're bound to collect, if you're the average DIY homeowner?


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## begreen (May 19, 2018)

Ashful said:


> So.... what do you folks do with your paint thinner?  Anti-freeze?  All of the other chemicals you're bound to collect, if you're the average DIY homeowner?


Our county has a hazardous waste pickup event once or twice a year that we bring it to. The last thing one wants to do is dump this stuff into the environment.


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## Ashful (May 20, 2018)

Ours does that, too.  It’s open about 3 hours per month, in the middle of the work day when I’m miles away.  Not exactly accessible.


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## begreen (May 20, 2018)

Ashful said:


> Ours does that, too.  It’s open about 3 hours per month, in the middle of the work day when I’m miles away.  Not exactly accessible.


Speak with them. We've managed to get some nice improvements to our system by organizing and putting good proposals on the table. Get together with neighbors if necessary and find someone retired or someone that telecommutes and works at home and is willing to drop off items.


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## Ashful (May 20, 2018)

begreen said:


> Speak with them. We've managed to get some nice improvements to our system by organizing and putting good proposals on the table. Get together with neighbors if necessary and find someone retired or someone that telecommutes and works at home and is willing to drop off items.



I will do that.  I hate dumping my tractor coolant and radiator flush chemical into the septic.  I try to burn most paint thinner, by pouring over something absorbent (straw or wood shavings), but that gets messy and tedious.

My wife does use miles of bleach, doing about a million small loads of laundry every week, and our dishwasher runs into it every day, but I don’t see any ways around that.


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## begreen (May 20, 2018)

Most local garages will take coolant and used oil. The rest is lifestyle. We haven't used bleach in laundry for decades.


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## Highbeam (May 20, 2018)

Ashful said:


> I will do that.  I hate dumping my tractor coolant and radiator flush chemical into the septic.  I try to burn most paint thinner, by pouring over something absorbent (straw or wood shavings), but that gets messy and tedious.
> 
> My wife does use miles of bleach, doing about a million small loads of laundry every week, and our dishwasher runs into it every day, but I don’t see any ways around that.



Holy crud! Do not dump anything into your septic. It just goes to the ground anyway so if you were going to dump it into the septic, dump it on the ground instead which won’t kill your septic system and risk even greater cost and pollution. Ideally you would recycle all of these things but it has become very very difficult to do so. They have even closed most used oil recycle stations in my area. 

Look at the chemical. Antifreeze for example is not that bad and you shouldn’t have too much to deal with. 

The right answer is to barrel all of this until you can take it to a hazardous waste dump.

Oh and I’m sure you’re not trashing those cfl bulbs or batteries either, right? AA batteries are not supposed to go in the trash.


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## Ashful (May 20, 2018)

Highbeam said:


> Holy crud! Do not dump anything into your septic. It just goes to the ground anyway so if you were going to dump it into the septic, dump it on the ground instead which won’t kill your septic system and risk even greater cost and pollution. Ideally you would recycle all of these things but it has become very very difficult to do so. They have even closed most used oil recycle stations in my area.
> 
> Look at the chemical. Antifreeze for example is not that bad and you shouldn’t have too much to deal with.
> 
> ...


Oil is actually one of the things that's easy to get rid of, here.  Everyone knows someone with a waste oil burner.  In fact, I just dropped off 5 gal with a buddy last week.

Batteries?  Yes, we toss them in the trash, here.  Not sure what else one would do with them, our recycling list doesn't include batteries.  Never checked for CFL's, we don't use 'em.

https://www.republicservices.com/recycling-guide

Antifreeze, I get 2 gallons from the tractor every second year.  But I also do a radiator flush each time I change the antifreeze, so there's that stuff, which I've always assumed must be nastier than antifreeze.


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## Highbeam (May 21, 2018)

So many questions that we don’t ask because we don’t want to know the answers. Save your septic! It’s for residential wastewater, nothing else. What you do with those chemicals is up to you but your septic is a very bad idea.


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## fbelec (May 21, 2018)

here in mass if you buy oil or antifreeze from a auto parts store they have to take the used stuff from you. and car batteries they charge a core fee if you don't take the old one back to them. the town hall takes the cfl bulbs and rechargeable batteries and lithium and alkaline batteries of all kinds


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## Ashful (May 21, 2018)

fbelec said:


> here in mass if you buy oil or antifreeze from a auto parts store they have to take the used stuff from you. and car batteries they charge a core fee if you don't take the old one back to them. the town hall takes the cfl bulbs and rechargeable batteries and lithium and alkaline batteries of all kinds



I think the car battery core charge probably applies everywhere.  We were talking AA’s, alkaline stuff.


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## begreen (May 22, 2018)

Locally we've worked as a community to dramatically increase our recycling rate and options. For batteries. We have a small container to collect alkalines, then take it to our local ACE hardware's service center for drop off when convenient. This is also our local Stihl, Echo and Craftsman dealer so it's quite convenient and right in town. Local auto parts store takes lead acid batteries of any kind, no charge. It's a win -win situation. They get more customer traffic + appreciation and less crap heads into the landfill. 

What's the closest decent sized town?


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## Ashful (May 22, 2018)

I can drop off batteries at work, in fact I just dropped a 12V lead acid UPS battery this morning.  Just never thought to bother with small alkaline batteries, but I’m sure they’d take them, if I asked.


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## begreen (May 23, 2018)

Good deal. When all of us start taking small steps, they can add up and become giant strides.


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