Finding a 5-foot-diameter hole in his lakefront lot in Eagle River, Wisconsin, confirmed the location of the homeowner’s 1960s steel septic tank.
“The tank lid had collapsed, and the dry well was in groundwater and failing,” says Rick Neis, owner of Muskyland Plumbing in Eagle River. “My greatest challenge was finding a system that physically fit the site.”
The 50-foot-wide, two-bedroom home is centered on a 260-by-80-foot-wide parcel with a potable well. The neighbors on both sides also have potable wells, each with 50-foot setbacks.
The only advantage Neis had was topography. A 13 percent slope at the front of the house drops
