What’s a Conventional Septic System? How does it Pollute? It is an underground wastewater treatment system designed for sanitary protection, commonly used in areas with no centralized sewer system. It consists of a septic tank and a drain field.
How it works:
Wastewater Collection: Waste flows into the septic tank.
Separation In the Tank: Solids settle to the bottom and form sludge, oils and grease float to the top as scum. The middle layer of relatively clear, polluted water flows to the drain field.
Drain Field: Wastewater is partially purified by soil and microbes as it flows into ground water or surface waters.
How it Pollutes the Indian River Lagoon: Conventional systems are 10-40% effective, at best, in eliminating algae-feeding pollution. The polluted water flows through Brevard’s sandy soil polluting the Lagoon. Here’s how:
Brevard’s Polluting Systems: Our 53,000+ conventional septic systems (many poorly maintained) are the third largest source of nitrogen pollution to the Lagoon. Combined, they leak some 400,000 lbs. of nitrogen pollution annually which helps to produce algae blooms.
Fixing Our Septic Problem: Brevard County has over 53,000 conventional septic systems leaking pollution into the Lagoon, many installed during our post-WWII construction boom. Conventional septics are designed for sanitary waste control. At best, they remove only 40% of nitrogen pollution. Today, they leak nearly 400,000 pounds of nitrogen pollution through our sandy soils annually into our Lagoon.
Brevard’s Plan: To tackle this, Brevard County ended permitting new conventional septic systems near the Lagoon in 2018 and is currently removing 4000+ systems and upgrading thousands more.
The State Is Going Further: The State banned permitting of new conventional systems in the Lagoon watershed beginning January 1, 2024. As of July 1, 2030, it is requiring all existing conventional systems in the watershed to be connected to sewer or replaced with advanced systems.
Brevard’s Save Our Indian River Lagoon Grant Programs: Check out the Save Our Indian River Lagoon (SOIRL) grant programs for septic-to-sewer connections at https://brevardfl.gov/SaveOurLagoon/SewerProjects and system upgrades at https://brevardfl.gov/SaveOurLagoon/SepticSystemUpgrades.
Healing the Lagoon takes each of us. It takes all of us. Together, we can make a difference!
What You Can Do Today:
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