Septic tanks-Phil Hogan's poison chalice?

[Coles]

Anyone know how the planning departments of the Local Authorities are disposed towards Composting Toilets and constructed reed bed systems?

Link. Seems to make perfect sense to me.

[james5001]

More wackjoberry from the enviro-MENTAL-ists.
This government will find itself fighting off
directives from the regressive forces in Brussels.
And you thought the Queen was a witch.

Maybe you should look into the subject before posting this. The poor soakage level of soils in some counties means that all of the run off is not absorbed or taken up by the flora. Therefore it must go somewhere, ie water.

[james5001]

The French system... and that of most countries. Do not give permission for houses in the countryside- farmland is farmland.

When you dig a hole for a septic tank you breach a filtering system that has been built up over millenia.

Farm yard manure is spread over grassland- this is the first layer of multiple layers of organic and inorganic material that attenuates, filters, and neutralises the poisonous bacterial material before it reaches ground-water.

Presumably Hogan knew about this. After all the threat to levy fines was only lifted a few months after Gormley (remember him?) took office as Minister for the Environment. The threat was re-instated a few days after the Greens, eventually, ran out of the government.

What about reed bed systems?

[james5001]

No but I know someone who did! Quite a headache!
What I was referring to was a county council grant of planning permission to someone to connect to a public mains sewer.
As a condition the coco wanted the old septic tank removed (not just backfilled) but they also required the whole back garden to be dug up and all the old soakage pipes and soil removed- ''in the interests of public health''
Personally I think that this is totally over the top and completely ridiculous and that if one were to follow the logic here one would remove all cattle from the countryside and all dogs and cats from towns an cities. After all cats, dogs and cattle lace the environment with E. coli 365 days a year.

Yes, but animals usually don't go to the toilet, they do it on the land. Therefore most, if not all of it is absorbed. Completely natural. What isn't natural is digging a big hole in the ground, filling it with concrete and hoping that bacteria and the soil will soak up your business

[james5001]

You are clearly not from a farming background or one yourself. Water quality in Ireland in agri. areas is back on average to where it was 40 years ago. I wouldn't even pee in the sea at this stage, given I would be nervous about some checking the water.

Id love to see a link for that

[james5001]

Seems to make perfect sense to me.

It does on the surface, but the effectiveness of such measures would have to be proven first

[58Pattern]

Its just another propery tax to be trousered by the filth of big business, bankers & traitor politicians.

+ 1000. Good to see some people see it for what it really is.

[Coles]

It does on the surface, but the effectiveness of such measures would have to be proven first

Like it has been throughout Europe and the rest of the World? It is already proven. It works.

[Aindriu]

Yes, but animals usually don't go to the toilet, they do it on the land. Therefore most, if not all of it is absorbed. Completely natural. What isn't natural is digging a big hole in the ground, filling it with concrete and hoping that bacteria and the soil will soak up your business

I have yet to see any septic tank encased in concrete

[Dreaded_Estate]

Marcos I wouldn't sweat on this if I were you. As I said earlier the fine from the EU for non-compliance is a one off one of €2.7 million, with a daily fine of about €26K+.

This equates to around €9.5 million per annum, the other side being probably bringing in a new septic tank inspection department say one inspector for every two thousand tanks would cost just as much and more.

Couple that with say €7000 cost per tank and multiply it by 200,000 pre 1980s tanks you would get a cost of €1.4 billion. Probably a government grant of 40% towards new tanks would cost €560 million.

€560 million would pay the EU fine for the next 60 years ! Actually if the government were to just accrue the interest they would have to pay on this amount it pays them to pay the fine.

Not to mention the cost of hiring 200 septic tank inspectors which with travel and the fact that they would have to be environmental engineers would probably cost minimum €40K per head or another €8 million a year.

No contest, this is one where a committee will be formed, a report will be produced, and no more will be said about it. We will happily pay our €9.5 million to the EU every year and that will be that.

There is so much wrong with this post it is hard to know where to start.

1. What makes you think the fines won't be increased over time?

2. Why would the government have to provide a grant? It is your piss and ************************ you deal with it.

3. You make it sound like it isn't in our own interests to do it. Not sure about others but I've no great desire to ingest others excrement.