Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Septic systems........

[Brian Tremback (brian.tremback]

Hi Kayelily,

As someone who has been designing on-site wastewater systems for almost 30
years (ranging in size from ones serving single-family homes to ones
serving multifamily housing and schools), using one or more systems for
your planned cohousing community seems reasonable and certainly not an
environmental concern if properly sited, designed, and maintained.

Because you'll need soils that are permeable and have adequate depth to the
groundwater table, this will need to be on the list of requirements when
searching for land. Your best bet will be to get in touch with a reputable
civil engineer in the area to get an idea of probable construction costs as
well as the cost for his/her services for design and permitting. Also, if
municipal water is not available, you'll need to provide your own on-site
water system. Depth of well and the need for storage and treatment will
affect the cost. You may be able to get a feel for what you might encounter
by talking with local well drillers.

Although our cohousing community is connected to municipal sewer and water,
other cohousing communities in Vermont - Ten Stones, Cobb Hill, Champlain
Valley - use on-site systems. You might be able to get some good insights
from them.

Best of luck with your project,

Brian Tremback
Burlington Cohousing
Burlington, VT



> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2016 22:46:09 -0500
> From: Cohousing <cohousing [at] mindspring.com>
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: [C-L]_ Septic systems........
> Message-ID: <81027813-CBAD-4285-9215-74ED9C360A0D [at] mindspring.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;     charset=us-ascii
>
> We at Raleigh Cohousing, a forming group searching for land and finding
beautiful land but no municipal water and sewer nearby to hook into, want
to know from this group if any of you had to put in septic systems or a
centralized septic system on your cohousing property?
>
> If so, please tell me in general, if you can, the amount of acreage the
septic tanks and leaching fields took and the cost? I know it varies from
state to state, county to county, etc.
>
> If a centralized treatment system, what was the cost of the system,
installation and maintenance involved?
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
>
> Kayelily and the land team!
> Raleigh-cohousing.com <http://raleigh-cohousing.com/>