Article: Should
I worry about draining bath clay into my septic system?
by Lawrence Luecking
As
an author and expert on healing clays, I am frequently asked
the question, "Will taking clay baths cause build up in my
septic systems?" For the answer I went to an expert on the
subject, Lawrence Luecking.
Perry A~
The
following article should not be viewed as anything other than
general guidance.
Should
I Worry About Draining Bath Clay Into My Septic System?
" Lawrence Luecking,
2008
As
a former designer of residences, licensed builder and one who
has constructed many residences on septic systems I will opine
that: if your septic was designed adequately and is working
properly the heavier clay particles will never get to the leach
field. They'll settle [by their own weight] to the bottom
of the septic tank compartments just as a teaspoon of clay does
when you put it into a glass to drink.
Contrary
to popular belief and the desires of [most of] the Septic Tank
Pumping Services to extricate as much of your $ as possible
while extricating septic wastes, a septic system should endure
for upwards of twenty years without ever needing to be pumped.
It's a living and continuing reaction like a 'breeder' in that
the bacteria consume the solid wastes and thrive on them! It's
a living entity made up of trillions of anaerobic
bacteria [tiny micro organisms that live and function in
the absence of oxygen and light] and consume organic waste
products. Like a human body, a Septic system does not like
acidic materials and if enough coffee grounds, drain cleaning
products, household cleansers and the like are emptied into the
tank, you'll eventually kill these tiny friendly bacteria and
the system will fail and indeed need to be pumped. I
always made it a point to advise anyone for whom I built to
avoid putting such materials into the house drains and toilets
and I was never aware of any system I installed ever having a
need to be pumped. I am currently aware of one system that
I installed in the late seventies which still functions and has
never been pumped.
Now, addressing the leach field proper, IF somehow clay did get
to the leach field it would eventually seep into the rock
bedding materials under the lines that distribute the effluents
but, based upon the relative large size of any leach field it
would take many years and an incredible amount of clay to
establish a membrane that would arrest the permeability of the
leach field. Since the tank itself functions on a
floatation process as the solid wastes are digested by the
anaerobic bacteria, clay, heavy by nature at approximately 68
lbs/cubic foot, would seem to settle to the bottom of the tank
[there is no significant turbulence in the tank] and not ever
get to the leach field. Since by design the digestion of
wastes is accomplished before leaving the tank proper, what goes
into the leach filed is, for the most part only water.
Bentonite can, by function of its [clay] particles, create an
impervious material that does not allow for solutions to seep
through, and is, as such, one of the materials used to line
manmade lakes and ponds to prevent it from leaking/seeping into
the ground! Again, it would take a very long time and many
hundreds of pounds of clay to clog a leach field. Contrary
to the tanks, leach fields can, by nature and the local soil
constituency, and what is put into them, eventually build up
deposits and sometimes need to be dug up and replaced.
In
synopsis, if you do the math related to tank volume and
frequency of your baths and amounts of clay used, it would take
years of clay baths before significant build up would dictate
tank pumping. If/when that might happen a thorough pumping
of the tank, with a special focus on reaching the bottom of the
tank, would remove the majority of any clay residue. Look
at it this way, how many 5 lb bags of clay would you have to put
into your septic tank to establish a layer an inch thick?
That of course, depends upon how many baths and how many cups of
clay per bath, but still, a very long time: while a one cup clay
bath taken weekly could generate [approximately] 26 lb of clay
residue in a year, it would, at this rate, require 2.6 years to
deposit a cubic foot of clay in an average 1500 gallon tank.
Since a cubic foot would occupy only 1,728 square inches [at a
one inch thickness] and there are approximately 7,200 square
inches of tank space on a flat bottomed concrete tank, it would
take 4.16 years, to accumulate a mere inch of deposit, not in my
opinion an amount that would be deleterious to the tank's
function.
"
Lawrence Luecking, 2008
Following
the release of this article in a yahoo chat group, it was validated by this testimony of Darla's
experience with clay and a 50 year old septic tank:
I've
been giving my daughter, who is recovering from Asperger's, SID
and Pandas, an average of 3 baths a week for the last year, with
3-4 cups of clay in each one. I don't use a strainer; I wash
every bit of it down the drain and I haven't had the first bit
of trouble. In fact, it seems like all my drains work better now
than they did before clay. I used to get the drains unplugged a
couple times a year for other reasons, but haven't had a problem
since I started using clay. I'm on a septic system that is
50 years old and I've used several different kinds of clays.
Darla
S.
Lawrence
(Luke) Luecking, a career builder and construction consultant,
began his quest for better health and nutrition in his late
teens. He is a practicing nutritionist in Colorado with
successful focuses on Nutritional approaches to healing disease
including Cancer, balanced body pH, brain and memory clearing,
and the relationship of environmental toxins to Parasite entry
into the human body, and Bio-electric medicine parasite
eradication. To contact Luke at Nutricon email wmlua06@yahoo.com
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