Onsite Wastewater Operations: Advanced Site Judgement
At the upper rungs of an on-site ladder the subject list is the same - tanks, soil, distribution,
maintenance, septage, safety. What changes is that the questions stop having a single lookup
answer and start requiring the operator to weigh a site's limitations against the available
technologies and the management that will actually be provided.
Matching technology to the limitation, not to the budget
Work from the specific limitation the site has:
| Site limitation | What it prevents | Typical responses |
|---|---|---|
| Shallow depth to seasonal high water table | Adequate unsaturated treatment depth beneath a trench | Mound; pretreatment then shallow dispersal; raise the infiltrative surface |
| Shallow depth to bedrock or a restrictive layer | Same | Mound; fill system where permitted; pretreatment plus shallow, widely dis