Pumping out a septic tank onto a garden

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gulledge

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Had a coworker tell me today that he planned on pumping out his septic tank onto the area where he has built a garden in the past. He said as long as you "go lightly" and disk the area really well, it works great. He said its nothing different from using cow or chicken manure. Has anyone ever heard of such, and is it even legal?

Needless to say I won't be eating any corn he brings in to work this year!
 
Same as cow or chicken manure... except for all the soaps, cleaners, and other chemicals that go down your drain.

Not a good idea.

Human waste can be used on food crops for livestock, but not on crops meant for human consumption (I think).
 
I should elaborate... cow or chicken or horse, are manures. They start as grass and come out as slightly processed grass. And they should be composted.

Human waste is feces. A lot of things like e-coli can be spread through it. Now, if it's been sitting in a septic tank for a long time... I'm still far from comfortable with that idea. Not every redneck solution is a good one.
 
Originally Posted By: JRed
Same as cow or chicken manure... except for all the soaps, cleaners, and other chemicals that go down your drain.

Not a good idea.

Human waste can be used on food crops for livestock, but not on crops meant for human consumption (I think).


I've been told that they used to use human waste for fertilizer on crops in China.

We had a family friend who still did this for her own garden here. No issues that I am aware of...
 
Originally Posted By: yonyon
It'll smell pretty awful for a couple of weeks but plants will be well fed.


...and you could die from it, but what the heck?
 
Originally Posted By: JRed
Same as cow or chicken manure... except for all the soaps, cleaners, and other chemicals that go down your drain.

Not a good idea.

Human waste can be used on food crops for livestock, but not on crops meant for human consumption (I think).

I think if you knew you were going to spread the stuff on your own garden you could try not to flush to many bad things down there. I guess in theory that if your system is still function properly its probably not overly toxic anyways.
For disease prevention its probably a good idea not use an area for a year for human food consumption.
Our pasture is 40' from our tank and its tempting to just rent a trash pump and alot of hose and let it rip if getting it pumped is super expensive for some reason. I haven't had to pump it yet.
 
Originally Posted By: gulledge
He said its nothing different from using cow or chicken manure. Has anyone ever heard of such, and is it even legal?

Needless to say I won't be eating any corn he brings in to work this year!

Thats crazy, human waste is just that, waste..
37.gif

Why not just start taking dumps right in the garden?

Our digestive systems are very efficient at extracting nutrients, unlike cattle, cows, horses and such.
 
You may also find that the county may have restrictions on dumping that within X feet of your well. In our state, I believe the limit is 75'
 
lol.....sounds crazy.....but you gotta think, the stuff they pump out goes "somewhere" - where do you think they take it?

lol.....likely right across the street to our rain water retention pond when we're all asleep late at night :P

But yes, I'd be worried about the e.coli, etc...."toxins" in the feces....don't think this works as he is planning on it working.....he may as well just get rid of his tank and turn it into a "lake".....


I don't think the septic "system" has any way of "antibacterial" or anything......but then again, who knows, I could be wrong....

All I know is the "bulk" of the [censored] falls to the bottom as a thick gooey sludge, then then the clean water floats to the top.....


Now, if he's pumping the "water" out of the tank, there's no longer going to be a "separation" within his septic tank......It'll just be a big "sludge pit" of feces, and the pump will pump out the water, pee, urine, etc......"liquids" - depending obviously on how far his pump reaches.....etc.....


I've heard, if a system has "never" been pumped, that can be a bad sign too.....in fact, they say it should be "inspected" (which typically includes a pump out) every 2-4 years.......
 
Part of the benefit of pumping it is to remove settled solids but also floating solids such as grease and oil which will cause damage to a drainfield over time. Most septic waste still goes to municipal wastewater plants but many here in Michigan no longer accept it.
 
I am an avid gardener. Several points to be made here, then I'll hold my peace.

Will you get sick? Maybe not, but you could get very sick and die. This is how those things get started with tainted lettuce and spinach, and they trace it back to a particular field. Is it worth the risk? Certainly not.

Second, this stuff is NOT really good for your plants anyway. Compost is a chemically different thing than manure. The way to judge good compost is that it has NO BAD SMELL. If it smells like [censored], it is. So if you use manure that hasn't been composted, it will cause your plants to grow real fast but not produce good fruit. Or, it will burn them. Unless this stuff is fully heat composted (hint: you don't have the equipment to do this correctly) then it's dangerous and not really good for your plants.
 
Night soil is good for tomatos.

I figure that since non-plant sources shouldnt be used in my compost pile, they also shouldnt be used in my (edible) garden, so Ive never done anything like that.

I would imagine that if one was to "fertilize" an area that way, and then avoid it (like a biohazard site) for a while (months? a year?) then return, the ground would still be fertile and just fine.

What makes it likely better than just putting the dumps in a field is that the septic is a living biological entity, which has decomposed much of the stuff in there. So Id imagine that any parasites, etc. have all been destroyed. Question is if the bacteria in the septic is bacteria like e coli that can make you very ill, or if it is always "good" digesting bacteria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil
 
Originally Posted By: crw
Originally Posted By: yonyon
It'll smell pretty awful for a couple of weeks but plants will be well fed.


...and you could die from it, but what the heck?


So many years ago when I was a small child growing up in a farming town it was common practice to do this. Timing was considered important and I'm sure the farmers had their reasons for that. I never heard of anyone dying from it, but then, maybe we're arr more fragile these days?
 
if you are wanting to fertilize your crops with your own waste, the safest way would probably be so called "Humanure"
in which you excrete your wastes into either a composting toilet, or a bucket w/ sawdust or other carbon rich material, adding a fresh layer of material after each use. when the bucket fills, it goes to a compost heap, and "cooks" for a year or so before use.
the compost process kills of the worst of what's in human feces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanure#Humanure
 
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