if you live in a rural area in or near a
smaller community or have a cottage
chances are you have a septic system
septic systems are used to treat
household wastes when a connection to a
municipal sewage system is not available
these systems are on site because they
are intended to treat wastewater where
it is actually generated anything that
goes down the drain
every drop from your shower and every
flush of your toilet flows out through
the septic system typically a septic
system consists of a storage tank a
network of pipes and billions of
microorganisms inside the tank that help
process your waste most rural homes have
what's defined under the Ontario
Building Code as a class for septic
system that is a septic tank along with
a leaching bed or a filter bed all
buried beneath the soil basically the
idea is to treat the wastewater first of
all typically through a septic tank the
septic tank will settle some of the
solids out provide a little bit of the
treatment and then we would send the
effluent to some kind of soul absorption
system or sometimes called a leeching
bed where you would further treat the
effluent and then allow it to trickle
into the end of the soil the waste flows
to the first compartment of the tank
where the heavy solids settled and the
lighter materials fat soils and greases
float to the top as scum baffles and
screens keep this scum layer from
flowing out to the leaching bit the scum
is removed when the tank is pumped out
during regular maintenance a small
amount of fine organic particles may
settle in the second compartment of the
tank where almost all of what's left
breaks down in systems built or upgraded
after 2006 an effluent filter is
required to trap and help decompose any
remaining particles before they get to
the leaching bin
the leeching bed is made up of a network
of perforated polyvinyl chloride drain
pipes these PVC pipes disperse the
effluent allowing the liquid to seep
into the ground where the bacteria and
other organisms continue to break it
down and where it is further filtered by
the stone and sand that surround these
pipes and the soil below the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural
Affairs is a key partner in researching
effective septic systems and the
ministry facilitates collaboration among
many leading organizations and
stakeholders with an interest in
Ontario's water resources including the
ministries of the Environment and
Municipal Affairs and housing
agriculture and agri-food Canada and
others
you