Joseph Meehan wrote:
Rich B. wrote:

My water softner drain line goes into my septic tank, I read that it
should NEVER go into the septic tank. The company that installed the
system says they do it all the time, but I read the county code and
this is not permissible. If I have the installation company change
the piping it will cost me a lot of money, I can do this myself at a
less expensive price. I just need to have some instructions. I want
to run the line out of the basement and into the ground so the brine
does not run out on the lawn (against code) or onto the shrubs around
the house. I need to know the following: the size of PVC pipe to use,
how long a piece of pipe do I need to bury in the ground, and how
deep does it need to be so that the water will not affect lawn and
shrubs. Do I need to have stone in the hole for drainage? I have
about 5 feet before I drill a hole in wood to get outside.

Rich B.


The critical part is: "I read the county code and this is not
permissible." and "The company that installed the system says they do it all
the time" I suggest you call the company and explain they can redo the job
according to code or you will contact the count and explain to them that
they do it all the time. I suspect they will do it properly. If not the
place to go is small claims court. It will cost you little or nothing and
they will require the company to do the job right.


And just where can you run this that it will NOT cause damage??? After
all, each flush puts several pounds of salt dissolved in several gallons
of water out thru the drain pipe.

As for size 1.0 inch pipe should be fine.

But the question next is how is the effluent from the septic handled,
drain field or sprinkled?? Several studies have shown that drain
field percolation rates improve with the modest addition of salt. After
all, a properly sized system will only flush a few gallons and only do
that about once a week or less. Normal household water use is 75
gallons per day per person, most of which goes into the septic.

County rules also say that RO wastewater should not go into septic.
This is a bigger concern than water softener as the mineral content is
50% to 100% higher than the well water it was derived from and it dumps
from 100% to 200% more waste water than the family consumes.

Having said all this, increasing the size of the septic tank one or two
sizes larger than the recommended size and dumping water softener waste
and RO waste should not be a problem.