- Don't Drink the Water - John Anderson
People have been settled -- as opposed to living as nomads or hunter-gatherers - for a mere ten thousand years. Most Homo sapiens lived without the advantages or constraints of a settled residence for at least the first half of that period.
As societies moved from nomadic cultures to more permanent civilizations, the concern over waste disposal became an important issue that has been dealt with in many different ways. Knowledge has been lost and regained. When groups were living as hunters and gatherers, refuse and human wastes decomposed naturally.
History's First Cities Had to Address Waste Issues
First the Greeks and then the Romans focused domestic wastewater sanitation on minimizing health risks, primarily infectious diseases. Like today’s municipal sewers, however, their treatment methods simply moved sludge from central urban centers back into water.
The failure of these urban societies caused the collapse of treatment methods and led to the rural social order of the Middle Ages. This sanitation downfall brought back the outhouse, open trenches, and the chamber pot, resulting in rampant disease and death. Only recently has the scope of wastewater management issues once again broadened to deal with chronic health risks.
In 1860, Louis Moureas invented the septic tank, although it would not be given this name until 1895. Septic tanks at this stage were used to treat sewage from communities. The main purpose of these large tanks was to remove gross solids before discharge into the nearest stream or river; but the effluent was largely untreated sewage that polluted streams and rivers. The pollution of water was not solved by the septic tank.
The Need to End Disease Led to Plumbing and Disposal
The urbanization of cities and the industrial revolution brought more people to cities and thus increased the amount of human waste accumulating in streets, rivers, and streams. In the mid-19th century, a world-wide cholera epidemic occurred.
The poor suffered the most, but the wealthy were not immune. The relationship of cholera to water was discovered by the English physician John Snow. He traced the contamination to public wells that were being contaminated by privy vaults, which functioned much like septic tanks, in the epidemic of 1854 in London.
Septic Tanks Remain the Same
The sewer, last used by the Romans, came back into service for city populations, moving sludge into the Earth’s ocean, rivers, streams, and lakes. In the United States, with the exception of New York City, where sewer lines were installed, the septic tank continued to be the only waste handling method in use.
The tank installed today is identical to the one used in then – it consists of two basic components: a septic tank and an underground disposal field. Wastewater flows from house to septic tank. Effluent, after the solids have settled out of the wastewater, flows from tank to drainage field. Most septic tanks operate by gravity, making it a passive system.
Dangers Posed by Broken Down Tanks
According to a 2007 American housing survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 20.4% of the housing units in the United States are served by septic tanks, cesspools (private, subsurface wastewater systems), or chemical toilets. More than 25 million septic tanks are in use in the United States. About 400,000 new systems are installed each year.
In some states, up to 50% of all households are served by septic tanks. In Canada, about 3 million active septic tanks are in use, and about 40,000 new ones are installed each year. Every average family produces 500 pounds of sludge every year.
References:
“Septic Tank System Effects on Ground Water Quality”, by Larry W. Canter and Robert C. Knox, CRC Press, Lewis Publishers, Inc., 1985.
Knowles, Graham, The National Onsite Demonstration Program, "Septic Stats: An Overview," 1999.
Plumbing and Mechanical Magazine, "The History of Plumbing -- Roman and English Legacy," July 1989.
John Anderson - John Anderson has worked as a journalist, editor, advertising executive, Internet pioneer, and he has authored four books.
