Young Couple’s Onsite Wastewater System Gets Upgraded
After living in their home for nearly ten years, a young couple that participated in our Septic Remediation Program began having indications that their septic system was not functioning properly. They noticed effluent seeping from the lateral field and called a septic professional to pump out the tank and check on the problem. The system’s lateral lines or drainfield, or the pipes laid subsurface that disburse the effluent into the ground to be treated naturally, were failing. In many similar situations, the septic tank itself is undersized after adding children to the family, which can add stress on the system and cause failure.
The family was able to utilize their own funds and decline the loan portion of the funding to only receive the grant support, which eliminates the need to sign a mortgage on the property (mortgage is used to to secure the zero-interest loan). Their total project cost with design and installation was $17,350. Our program will issue $15,615 in grant funds for their new system.
Every project is different and has wins and losses along the way. Everyone hated to see these mature trees go, but it was a requirement to be able to install this onsite wastewater treatment system on their parcel as the roots damage lateral lines. We hope to replace those trees with native species in locations that will not interfere with the lateral lines in the long term.
If you have a septic system in the Upper Illinois River Watershed in Arkansas, email us at septic@irwp.org or call (479) 321-6222 to see what level of grant funding you can qualify for to get it repaired or replaced.
