What is the Cost of Installing New Sewage Treatment Systems?

The cost of a Oakstown sewage, or wastewater treatment system, depends on which system you require. Oakstown Environmental manufacture both pumped and gravity discharge systems.

We can supply a 6PE Sewage Treatment System, ideal for most domestic homes, including pump for €3,800 ex-vat and the gravity system for €3,650 ex vat all systems delivered to site.

We also supply a larger 8PE Sewage treatment System, see more here.

Our PE6 system is supplied with concrete risers to maximum height of 900mm, up to 50 meters of 7 core SWA cable, control panel, air blower, water pump (depending on system) and a two-year guarantee on all components.

Cost of Installing a new Septic Tank

If you wish to install a new septic tank, our cost starts from €1150 + vat – read more on septic tanks here.

Why use a sewage treatment system/wastewater treatment system and not a septic tank?

The Oakstown wastewater treatment system provides treatment of all wastewater from the dwelling, whereas a septic tank simply separates it.

This means that the wastewater that leaves the treatment system is cleaner than what leaves a septic tank and it’s certainly a lot more environmentally friendly.

What maintenance is involved in a BAF Sewage Treatment System?

The Oakstown BAF wastewater treatment system should be desludged every 3 to 5 years depending on usage and serviced every 12 months.

When our technicians call out to service a system they will spend on average 45-75 minutes on site, completing a full digital service report for your system.

Some of the checks made are Forward blower pressure, Back pressure of the Air system, Dissolved Oxygen reading of treatment chamber, PH level of water in discharge chamber, all electrical items tested or repaired.

All alarms on system checked for operation. Details of any issues or need for desludging reported to customer.

All products by oakstown demonstrated by tanks on this lorry

—  Original Article  —

O’Reilly Oakstown Environmental talks about the cost of installing new sewage treatment systems

After flooding a few years ago in 2016, it has become apparent that many septic tanks in rural areas are not working efficiently and may need upgrading. A septic tank is traditionally used for the primary treatment of sewage from most rural houses. Many older houses will only have a septic tank and some form of percolation area for sewage treatment but this is not always sufficient for treating sewage.

“In the septic tank the sludge settles, while the crust floats and the liquid or grey water moves on to the percolation area. Over 99.5% of all solids should be retained in the tank,” explained Diarmuid of O’Reilly Oakstown.

Sewage treatment takes place here via anaerobic digestion, generally breaking down the effluent by 30%. Typically, in older systems the grey water (partially treated sewage) goes to the percolation area where the soil is expected to do the remaining 70% of sewage treatment.

How the system should work

Many Irish soils are unsuitable to carry out this level of sewage treatment and secondary treatment is usually required.

A secondary treatment system takes the partially digested water and feeds it to bacteria that break it down further.

There are many different types of secondary sewage treatment systems.

In Oakstown we use a three-chamber secondary treatment process to digest, clarify and then pump the water from the two primary chambers. In the bioreactors aerobic bacteria are cultured on durable netted plastic biomedia. This gives the microbes adequate surface to attach to while air is blown through the tubes from a low-watt blower sitting on top of the tank.

The air enters the tubes from the bottom of the tank and diffuses into millions of tiny bubbles, allowing the aerobic bacteria to thrive.

The inclusion of both air and grey water activates the bacteria to work on further breaking down the sewage via aerobic digestion, and making it less harmful to the environment.

The second chamber acts as a clarifier to periodically remove any solids which may get to that stage. The final chamber is the discharge area. Here a water pump moves treated sewage from the system to the percolation area. Up 99% of the sewage treatment efficiency can be achieved after it goes through the combination of primary and secondary treatment.

Repairing an existing system

The main signs that a sewage treatment system is not functioning properly is water backing up in sewers and ponding around the percolation area. Sometimes it may be possible to fix a tank by fixing the T-bend where the waste enters the primary tank.

A properly functioning T-bend slows down the rate of movement of solids into the tank, reducing the splash effect in the tank so that a scum layer can form creating anaerobic conditions for waste water treatment.

Baby wipes should never be let into a tank because they cannot be broken down and cause blockages.

However, many old sewage treatment systems are beyond repair and are not fit for purpose. Some older tanks have structural cracks or the percolation system no longer works efficiently. Diarmuid believes these systems should be upgraded. Certainly, both septic tanks and sewage treatment systems should be desludged regularly.

Installing a new system

Planning permission is required when installing a new system but this is on the basis of a report from a soil engineer who will assess the site and recommend what type of treatment system is necessary.

A site assessment will determine whether or not a particular site can achieve the safe dispersal of wastewater from a development. Diarmuid says soil engineers carry out T-tests and P-tests. Very good soils that are efficient at treating grey water in a percolation area will typically have a T-test result of five to 20.

Extremely free-draining soils with a T-test result under five would likely require a secondary treatment system because partially treated sewage may make its way directly into groundwater or wells too easily.

On the other hand, wetter soils with a T-test over 20 would also be more likely to require secondary sewage treatment because in time there may be a risk of clogging in average to poor soils.

Cost of Installing New Sewage Treatment Systems

Cost of Installing New Sewage Treatment Systems – [Updated 2022]

The cost of installing new sewage treatment systems depends on which system you require. Oakstown Environmental manufacturer both pumped and gravity discharge systems. We can supply a PE6 including pump for €3,800 ex-vat and the gravity system for €3,650 ex vat all systems delivered to site.

Our PE6 system is supplied with concrete risers to maximum height of 900mm, up to 50 meters of 7 core SWA cable, control panel, air blower, water pump (depending on system) and a two-year guarantee on all components.

Contact us here to find out about installing new sewage treatment systems and finance options available

Grant Aid 

There are currently 3 grant systems to help witn the cost of installing new sewage treatment systems, which we explain in more detail on this link.

  1. Under the NIP (National Inspection Plan), Septic tank grants can be used to fix septic tank systems that fail inspection by a Local Authority. They may need remediation, repair, upgrading or replacement.
    85% of the eligible costs of remediation, repair or upgrading works, or replacement of any such system or €5,000, whichever is the lower.
  2. Prioritised Areas for Action, ie that are or may be causing harm to the environment and need remediation, repair, upgrading or replacement.
    The house must be located in a PAA in accordance with the River Basin Management Plan.  85% of the approved cost of the works subject to a maximum of €5,000. The minimum expenditure on eligible works required to process the application is €750.
  3. There is also High Status Catchment Area – to find out of your house in in the catchment area click here and follow the map instructions

 

(Original article By Peter Varley Farmers Journal)

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Water charges may have been shelved for now but there are still many farmers involved in local water schemes where water charges remain high.

For farmers involved on local water schemes, installing a rainwater harvesting system is a viable option to reduce water bills. It would be preferable to install a system that would provide potable water that can be used as drinking water for livestock and for washing out milking parlours. However, simply installing a tank that is used to collect water that can then be used to wash out slatted sheds etc, could help reduce your water bill.

Organic capital investment scheme

TAMS II offers grant aid to organic farmers for rainwater harvesting systems under the Organics Capital Investment Scheme to improve their agricultural buildings and equipment. The scheme offers 40% grant funding or 60% for young farmers, up to a ceiling of €80,000 per holding. The minimum amount of investment required to avail of grant aid is €2,000. This scheme is only open to licensed organic operators who are registered with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

A rainwater harvesting system comprises of collection, filtering and storage of rainwater while the further treatment of collected rainwater is optional. The basic requirements for any rainwater treatment system is well-maintained, clean gutters directing the rainwater to a suitably sized and constructed holding tank from where the water is then distributed.

The components of a rainwater harvesting system are:

  • Roofed area to collect rainwater.
  • Clean gutters to collect rainwater from a roof.
  • Rainwater downpipes in good condition.
  • Filter to remove debris from rainwater.
  • Covered drains to direct rainwater from gutters to storage tank, where required.
  • Sump tank and sump pump where required.
  • Rainwater storage tank with calmed inlet and overflow.

Only rainwater from roofs of buildings is permitted to be collected for harvesting if you wish to avail of grant aid. This water must be further treated if it is to be used as drinking water for livestock or irrigation of horticultural crops. It must also be treated if it is to be used to wash milking parlours as this water needs to be of potable standard.

Tanks can be situated either above or below ground, but must be covered with a solid cover that prevents the ingress of any dirt into the tank. Floating covers are not permitted. All tanks must also be fitted with a proprietary calmed inlet to prevent the disturbance of any sediment at the bottom of the tank. It is important that the system is set up to avoid stagnation by ensuring that pipe work connections allow the flow of water through the tanks.

All tanks must be fitted with an overflow outlet attached to a suitable clean water drainage system to allow water to discharge during storm events.

When deciding on what size tank you wish to install, it is important that it has sufficient capacity to hold between a minimum of seven days’ and a maximum of 18 days’ rainfall from the collection area. The capacity is based on the average rainfall for the location of the tank, the size of the collection area and the demand on the harvested water. Exact rainfall figures for any location can be obtained directly from Met Éireann.

Water treatment

Treatment of the collected rainwater is optional. However, it should be noted that unless the rainwater us treated it will not be of potable standard. As such, this means it cannot be used for washing bulk tanks or milking machines on a dairy farm. It can also not be used for feeding to lactating dairy cows. All rainwater harvesting systems must have filters installed to filter any debris from the rainwater before it enters the rainwater storage tank. They must also be proprietary self-cleaning filters, with the use of homemade filters not permitted.

Costs

The costs of a rainwater harvesting system can vary greatly. Contact O’Reilly Oakstown today to find out what the cost of your system would be.

Article By William Conlon of Farmers Journal on 07 July 2016

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