AquaKlear

Septic Tanks or Aerated Treatment Units (ATU’s)

Posted on 23. Mar, 2009 by Marty in Sewage Treatment Systems

Typical Septic Tank

When people are searching for a way to treat the sewage from their homes that will work on the lots where their homes are, they most often think of septic tanks.  There are two major problems with septic tanks that most people don’t understand.  The first is that septic tanks do not do a good job of treating the sewage.  At best, they remove about 50% of the pollutants that are of concern for protecting the environment and almost none of the potentially disease-causing microorganisms.  The second is that the partially treated sewage from septic tanks is discharged to the environment, either polluting the ground water or polluting surface waters.

Because septic tanks only partially treat sewage, the effluent is discharged beneath the ground surface, usually to what is called a drain field, soil conditions permitting.  When the soil is such that sub-surface discharge is not possible or allowed or when there are sensitive waters or drinking water supplies that may be impacted, a higher level of sewage treatment is required.  This is where aerated treatment units, or ATU’s, are used.

ATU’s use air, blown into the sewage, to increase the growth of microorganisms.  Those microorganisms, or “bugs”, use the harmful organic matter in our waste as a food source.  This increased activity greatly reduces the harmful pollutants in the treated sewage.  Those pollutants are generally reduced by approximately 85 to 95%.  With the use of chlorination, harmful microorganisms can be all but totally eliminated.  To see what these sewage treatment systems look like, click on this ATU link, www.aquaklear.com.

Another great advantage to ATU’s is that their treated effluent can be discharged in several different ways.  Depending on local regulations and specific site conditions, the treated sewage from an ATU may be discharged to a drain field, to a surface receiving stream, by overland flow on your property, into a mound system, by drip irrigation or by spray disposal.

Have any questions or comments, please let me know.

Typical ATU

Tags: Add new tag, aerated treatment units, ATU’s, on-site sewage treatment, septic tanks, sewage treatment