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I have sewer at the street, but will be building 1/2 way down a sloping lot so situate my home perfectly in front of a 2 acre pond. As a result I will have to pump about 20′ of rise and 150′ of length to get to the sanitary sewer. Would I be better off using a grinder pump and the sanitary at the street or installing a septic system? If sanitary, any advice on grinder pumps, size of holding tank, add a hook-up where a generator can be connected during a power outage, etc.?
thanks,
Ken
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Ken-
First, contact any local agencies that have jurisdiction as your decision may be helped along by setbacks for septic leach lines from the pond, etc.
In any event though, having access to a sewer tie-in is way handy and it'd probably be nuts not to use it.
So, how to get up the hill?
Grinders are expensive and might not be necessary in your application. If your sewer tie-in accepts solids, meaning: everything that comes down the pipe, then you could probably just use a properly sized trash pump. If installed in a 500 gallon tank used as pump vault one could set the switch floats to maintain the tank reasonably empty. In the event of a power outage you'd then have let's say 400 gals. of storage before you had to worry about pumping. By upsizing the pump vault you get the dual benefit of fewer pump cycles (longer pump life,) and storage capacity. Six inches of float-travel in a 50 gallon sump leads to just a few gallons pumped per cycle. Six inches of travel in a 4' x 10' concrete tank is approx. 150 gals.
A second identical pump could be installed in the tank on a manual switch, it could then function as back-up in event of pump 1 failure, and could be used to pump accumulated sludge out of the bottom of the tank that is beyond the range of pump 1's floats, or run off a generator during a protracted power outage.
As far as choosing and sizing a pump, vault, etc. contact Zabel at http://www.Zabel.com they are a Great outfit and you can order the components direct from them. If you care to, let me know what you end up with-
Lance Moody
*In most places I doubt you have a decision at all. Most places Code and Sewer Utility rules make the decision for you. So, talk to them before you do anything. Plus, most places where sewer is available using septic tanks is outlawed. After all the reason for the sewer in the first place is because house density is too high for safe septic use. Plus, why take the chance on accidentally polluting that fine pond when you don't have to?Mr Moody's post is as good a way as any to take care of it.
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I have sewer at the street, but will be building 1/2 way down a sloping lot so situate my home perfectly in front of a 2 acre pond. As a result I will have to pump about 20' of rise and 150' of length to get to the sanitary sewer. Would I be better off using a grinder pump and the sanitary at the street or installing a septic system? If sanitary, any advice on grinder pumps, size of holding tank, add a hook-up where a generator can be connected during a power outage, etc.?
thanks,
Ken