Leach Fields

Your house produces wastewater. Every time you flush a toilet or turn on a faucet that water has to go somewhere, and if you're not connected to a city sewer and water system then that wastewater (hopefully) is transported to your septic system. Wastewater is divided into two types: black water and gray water. "Black water" refers to toilet waste, while "gray water" refers to wastewater from sinks, showers, and washing machines. Some houses have systems designed to reclaim gray water and use it again, either for watering plants and lawns or for flushing toilets. These systems are extremely ecologically friendly, since without them our gray water has to go a long way before it can be utilized again.

Eventually, both the gray water and black water enters a septic tank. The tank settles out the wastewater, with solid waste settling at the bottom and fats floating to the top. The clear layer of wastewater in between is usually then transported to a leach field, where it filters through the soil.

The leach field is important because it allows the nutrients from your waste water to be reclaimed by nature, eventually letting the purified water enter the water table deep below ground and eventually enter a river, lake, or well. Usually the construction of the leach field involves a long perforated pipe which feeds the water directly into the neighboring soil. The size of the field is wholly dependent on the size of the building it serves; a small home may have a leach field the size of a parking space or two, while a large structure may require a leach field the size of a parking lot. The efficiency and effectiveness of these fields can be increased if they are located in wetlands, as wetlands are natural filters which can absorb and quickly utilize wastewater nutrients.

Effective wastewater treatment was actually one of the hallmarks of successful societies, as the most successful dynasties on earth including the Roman Empire, the Mayans, and the Incas, all found ways to transport clean water into their cities and transport wastewater out of their cities. Indeed, it seems that the plumber, not the doctor or the inventor, is to thank for modern society, as without the doctor we may be sick, and without the inventor we may be without a remote control or bifocals, but without the plumber we would all be walking around in our own waste.