Cess Pools and Pumping
Cesspools and Pumping Stations
Cesspools
A Cesspool is a covered watertight tank used for receiving and storing sewage and has no outlet. It is essential that it always remains impervious to the ingress of ground surface water and also to leakage.
A cesspool requires regular emptying and should not be allowed to overflow. The local authority or a private contractor will provide an emptying service.
It is recommended that a cesspool is not sited closer than 15m to any dwelling and as far away as possible from any watercourse (normally not less than 10 metres), minimum capacity of a cesspool is prescribed by building regulations as 18 cubic metres (18000 litres) or alternatively 45 days storage should be allowed for.
The average household of three persons will use seven cubic metres of water/sewage (the capacity of a typical emptying tanker) in approximately three weeks, which is in the region of 150 litres of effluent per person per day.
We believe a cesspool to be the least desirable of the available private drainage systems because of its need fro frequent emptying. It is common for cesspools to be converted to treatment plants or pumping stations or replaced, depending on the alternatives available.
Pumping Stations
Many people shy away from pumping stations because of horror stories from friends/neighbours etc regarding the system breaking down however, it is our experience that most of the problems arise because the system or type of pumps installed are not suitable for the purpose they are being used.
All pumping stations require maintenance like anything mechanical and provided this is carried out a pumping station is a reliable way of dealing with water/sewage.
We can supply and install pumping stations to suit most situations, they come in package form or we may be able to convert an existing tank such as a cesspool.