ABSTRACT
It is an unfortunate fact of life that bureaucracy lags behind technology. In general, committee-prepared codes such as the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) and state regulations inadequately address onsite liquid waste disposal systems. Most people assume that a septic tank is anaerobic; that is, the liquid in the tank has no oxygen in it and the bacteria which live in the liquid don't breathe oxygen the way animals do. As with municipal systems, the water coming out of the pipe at the end of the treatment process (septic tank) has to go somewhere. The purposes of designing and installing a proper liquid waste disposal system are to dispose of household wastewater while eliminating the health hazard of sewage on the ground, and to protect the ground water from contamination. An obvious cleansing mechanism is simple filtration. Another mechanism for cleansing sewage effluent is by biological action.
