[tsheridan]

Purchased a home on eastern Long Island as a vacation property. It has a cesspool and water softener. Regeneration drain is connected to the main drain to cesspool.Twice that we are aware of - when the system regenerated it overflowed to the basement - to a floor drain situated there.
I was told that the water table in the area is very high - thereby creating problems with cesspool capacity

Thinking about possible options:
1.) switching salt based water softener for one that does not need to regenerate - if anyone has had experience with efficacy of these systems it would be appreciated;
2.) running catch basin/pipe from overflow valve to basement drain - believe it drains to very sandy soil under house and appears to have no problem absorbing regenerated water

comments on above or any other options would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

 

[Chris616]

I’m unclear on how a cesspool differs from a septic tank, which many of us are familiar with. I’ll continue assuming that they’re similar enough not to make a difference.

I think that you’re saying that the softener regeneration flow exceeded the outlet capacity of the cesspool, causing water to back up to the house after which it spilled out onto the floor from where it was tied into a drain with an air gap device. I suggest that this is a red flag about a problem. You don’t want all your friends flushing toilets at a break in the Superbowl to cause the same issue.

In partial answer to your second question, I’d feel somewhat uncomfortable about intentionally dumping a fair amount of water on a regular basis down a floor drain that just terminates in the ground under the house. You might find one day that it isn’t draining and the regen water is pooling there.

A third option that you could consider is piping the regen water away from the house on the ground surface. We do that (although there might be municipal rules where you are prohibiting it). I didn’t want the regen water from our softener going into the septic tank. It’s not good for the bacteria and just makes for additional water to have to pass through the septic system. I tied it into the drainage system that takes rainwater from the gutters on our roof underground and downhill away from the house. The grass does very well at the outlet of the pipe (even in summer when there is no rainwater dilution), so the sodium concentration in the regen water is fairly low.

Chris

 

[tsheridan]

cesspool is supposedly old type septic system -
thank you for suggestions -

I inquired about a drywall for water softener discharge - was quoted about $2500
don't know if I could do one myself but don't know how to size

thank you for taking time to reply

 

[Chris616]

You're welcome. In NY, the piping for softener regen water will need to be freeze-protected. And whatever system you build needs to have an air-gap to prevent contaminants from flowing backwards into the drinking water supply.

Keeping in mind the previous comments, a drywell is an excellent idea, and better than discharge onto the surface, but you should consider where the drywell is relative to any water wells, etc.. From my limited research it seems that a typical softener uses 60-150 USgallons for the regen process. That takes place over a period of several hours, though, so a drywell wouldn’t need to be sized for the maximum volume if the water can drain away fairly easily. Other folks on the board might have better ideas, but one thought would be to dig a hole big enough for a 50-gal prefabricated drywell and run a softener regen cycle into it as a test.

Chris

 

[Old Thomas]

I would get a plastic 55 gallon drum to two, depending on how much it discharges. Dig a hole, drill the drumS full of 3/8” holes, and bury them. Dig the hole a little bigger than the barrels and fill the void around the barrels with #1 crushed stone. Run a pipe a size or two larger than the water softener discharge into the house so the softener discharge can drop into it. I have done it in western NY at least a dozen times for all sorts of gray waste water. It will work even in the winter. One barrel with some stone under and around it should be enough.