Iowa Onsite Wastewater Association conducts limited study of septic performance at habitat for humanity houses to document how various systems perform under field conditions
The Iowa Onsite Waste Water Association (IOWWA) in June released a summary of testing performed on treatment systems developed in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity. The data study looked at systems from various manufacturers in settings that include maintenance and effluent sampling beyond the six-month interval required by the state Department of Natural Resources.
The project assessed how the treatment units are performing under field conditions. The systems sampled included:
- Five homes served by one FAST system (Biomicrobics) followed by a drip irrigation field (American Manufacturing).
- One home with a Hoot aerobic system followed by a drip irrigation field (Netafim).
- One home with an Advantex unit (Orenco Systems) followed by open discharge.
- One home with a Fusion system (Clarus Environmental) followed by discharge.
- One home with an Ecoflow system (Premier Tech) followed by open discharge.
- One home with an Ecoflex system (Premier Tech) followed by open discharge.
- One home with a BioCOIR system (Quanics) followed by open discharge.
Over one year, IOWWA sampled the seven systems. In general the units were found to be performing well, but some systems were receiving higher flows and consequently were not performing as well as those with flows significantly below their design flow. Some units showed their performance trended as a function temperature or length time.
“Due to the limitations of the sample set, including sampling day of the week and time, and inherent weakness of the grab sample technique without influent sampling, no assumptions should be made about future performance of these units at the site or other locations across Iowa or the U.S.," the report stated.
“It would advantageous to continue monthly sampling for two to three more years so a larger sample set could be evaluated, including microbial parameters.” Read the entire report at: http://www.iowwa.com/FileGet.aspx?id=171.
