Teach me about septic lagoons please...

[Hears The Water]

My beau has a septic lagoon on his 60 acre farm. I didn't realize that they were legal around here, but he says that they are. We got to talking about it in the first place because he was out walking his property and mentioned that he needed to go back and kill off the cattails again. I am confused. I had allways heard that cattails are good plants to have because they help use up the waste. So my thought was that perhaps they would be a good thing to have in a septic lagoon. I have been googling septic lagoons, and one site mentioned that cattails and other aquatic plants are just breeding grounds for bugs and should be discouraged. And that brings me to my next question... wouldn't something like this just be a great big breeding ground for mosquitoes? And if that were the case, could ducks be allowed to noodle in there to keep the bug population down? Or would the lagoon be harmful to the ducks or perhaps they would disturb the process that is going on out there anyway? Can someone explain the process to me? I read that there are several types of lagoons, aerobic, anerobic, airated, and one more that I cannot remember. The sites speak of the whole process in very generalized terms and I have a lot of questions. I like to learn things and this is just one of them. I want to know if grey water can be dumped into it, and if it would be hard to go from one size of a family using it to a larger one. Just in case....hmmm you know in case his family increased by four more in the near future. Ok, this is enough questions for now... thanks in advance.
God bless you and yours
Debbie

[Belly Acre]

I am by no means a pro but the health department here MADE us get a septic lagoon by pricing us out of a standard leach system. Plus they had some really stupid ideas concerning the need to dig up a leaching system and replacing the loam every so many years. With excavation people being the way they are here (if you want to get the shaft, hire an excavator), I am glad we broke down and just did the lagoon system where no additional excavation was necessary.
From what the health department says, our systems water runs out of our home into a solid waste holding tank (a septic tank) From the top of the septic tank the water flows to the bottom of the lagoon. Supposedly, the water at the bottom of the lagoon is the "Dirty water" possibly containing whatever flows over from the top of the septic tank, but supposedly the top water is "drinkable." Yes, he says drinkable.....not for me, maybe for him!
We have had our lagoon 10 years, very seldom is there any smell coming from it, it is quite a ways from the house though...we weren't taking any chances! The bull frogs love it. In the 7 years that I have had ducks, they have NEVER gone to it to swim or to get into it (its fenced)...I have never seen a blue herron in it, though I have seen them in my neighbors pond that is just across the street.
The health depatrment did give us a list of plants the we could grow around the lagoon to help the process and I do believe cat tails were on that list. Another flower was sunflowers.
And in a nut shell that is about all I think I know about my lagoon. I hope it helps you in whatever you are trying to understand about them.

[ceresone]

All I can tell you on ours is that it works. Put in 1972, for large kennel system, and all house drains go to it also. frogs love it--so theres your mosquito problem taken care of. I think the eco-system here in the Ozarks if too fragile to try to drain underground. Curious what he does for cattails--our pond is full of them--and they bring pesky red-winged blackbirds--(think starlings).

[Hears The Water]

Thank you Belly Acre, I appreceate hering from someone that has one. That gives me a bit more of an idea as to what is going on. I thought that it was just a pipe that dumpped into a lagoon.

Ceresone, he said that he just waited until it was really dry one year and put on some waders and walked out and dug up the tubers from under the ground. I agree about how delicate the ecosystem is here in the Ozarks, and that was another one of my worries. He has two wells on his property, I don't know where they are in relation to the lagoon. The one well is the original well from over a hundred years ago and still has the structure over it to drop your rope and bucket down into for your water. He said that it is full of silt right now, though. It is very shallow. The second one is your standard well with a pressure tanks and all enclosed and that is the one that he uses. I was just rather impressed with the old well in case of SHTF or elec. outages. But I was not sure if the waste from the lagoon leaches into the ground water or not. Oh, so many questions about this! I find it rather facinating! LOL
God bless you and yours
Deb

[holleegee]

We have a lagoon or "potty pond" as my kids call it. It has to be fenced with a gate and we were told no vegetation. We do have cattails growing in it and tons of frogs. It doesn't smell. The gross stuff is in the septic tank and the clear (I would say clean) water goes in the lagoon. Our land wouldn't perc so we had to have a lagoon...not a big deal. I have muscovy ducks and they never go in there and they can fly. If you have problems with mosquitos (sp?) they make the ring things that you throw in there and it kills the larve.

[Cyngbaeld]

Anybody know if they are ok in TX?

[Trixie]

I live in Texas - and don't have a clue. This is truly the first time I have ever heard of this.

The only 'lagoons' I know about are for dairy and poultry farms. If these are not lined and managed properly, they do contaminate the underground water. This I know from having 3 wells ruined by neighboring poultry lagoons.

You learn something new everyday --------

[caroline00]

no plants allowed becaues they shade the lagoon and the lagoon works by evaporation so it needs to be in full sun.

We have never had an odor and it has never even come close to being full (8 people)

we did have a clog this year where the pipe enters the lagoon... apparently a child washed a pan of grease and when it hit the cold water this winter it froze and plugged the pipe. But that was carelessness of ours...

[fantasymaker]

On a hot day water loving plants can transpire a LOT of water!

[Alice In TX/MO]

Check with your county agent or county health department in Texas. I'm pretty sure septic systems are county regulated, not state, and they are not legal in my county.

[BaronsMom]

Here's an educational site from Univ of Nebraska-Lincoln. Talks about septic, lagoons and more...

http://wastewater.unl.edu/materials.html

You still need to visit with state regulators to see what the rules are.

Good luck