RO drain field

[drewlamb]

Preparing to break ground on a sugarhouse addition to accommodate 600 gph RO. I have no place to dump the used permeate and after considering hauling it decided to drop some extra $$ and dig a drain field. Does anyone have experience with designing this? Specifically I'm wondering how many runs, what length, what gradient, what depth - or anything else you can think of. Guy helping my with excavation has lots of experience with septic leach fields but nothing that dumps so much so fast. Thanks!!

[GeneralStark]

Totally depends upon your soils....Most go to daylight with it.

[PerryFamily]

I'm with General on this... head for daylight and don't bother with a leaching field.

If you really must have one I might go the drywell route with plenty of stone below and around the concrete drywell. Maybe pop in an overflow and head for daylight

[n8hutch]

You could have an engineer do a perc test or maybe you have some perc test Data on your Leach field design for your home, this will tell you how fast your soil drains, then you can determine how big of a field you would need based on your gph of discharge. I guess It won't be cheap but it should last forever because it will only see water. And won't add to what's probably already a wet and potentially muddy spring situation. Should pay dividends in the future.

[maple maniac65]

Why do you need a drain field for permeate?

[Parker]

If your getting a govt. Grant and now even some towns want you to have a approved place for the permate to go so as not to affect anhy nearby brooks ,vernal pools or wetlands p.h. wise,,,permate water in a funny way dilutes the surface water and is a concern to salamanders, frogs, et. Al......i have seen people go the drywell root with a large area of crushed stone surrounding the drain tiles,,,,,if you know how many taps your going to have you should be able to roughly calculate how much water your going to discharge, once you have the rough number of potential gallons that could be discharged and a rough idea of the perc. Rate of your soil (get your buddie to dig a hole where the drywell is going to the depth of the dry well then dump 20 measured gallons of water in the hole and time how long it takes to dissapear ,,,if your are not required to have a stamped plan,,,,) now rememder in the spring there is going to be a whole lot more water in the ground to start with and size accordingly,,,,,,,good luck with your project!

[drewlamb]

Thanks guys. Yeah, no way to daylight unfortunately. I'd thought about a drywell but figured a leach field would do far better with the large volume. We're 1000 taps now and expanding to 2000 over next couple years. Will be concentrating to 8% so system will need to handle +/-1500 gal of permeate per run. Current plan is to build 2, 30 foot runs.

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Sweet tree ran pipes with holes in them into the woods to act as a so called sprinkler system to distribute the permeate you could try that with old main line


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Also a dry well/French drain and a leach field are almost the same. Just make sure the new system is not close to your septic so you don't flood that too


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ennismaple]

We ran a 6" perforated Big O with filter sock about 150 feet down the hill away from the sugar camp into a hay field. We had the benefit of a lot of fall to the bottom plus we have sandy loam soils.

Since there can be 4000 gallons or more permeate and wash water in a good day the snow melts at the end of the subdrain before it melts anywhere else! We have a trail that runs along the bottom of the hill about 100 feet from the end of the subdrain and it we have never had water pond up there so it's safe to say we have very pervious soils.

Can you not send just your wash water (when using soap) to a drain field and the regular permeate discharged to the surface?

[wiam]

We ran a 6" perforated Big O with filter sock about 150 feet down the hill away from the sugar camp into a hay field. We had the benefit of a lot of fall to the bottom plus we have sandy loam soils.

Since there can be 4000 gallons or more permeate and wash water in a good day the snow melts at the end of the subdrain before it melts anywhere else! We have a trail that runs along the bottom of the hill about 100 feet from the end of the subdrain and it we have never had water pond up there so it's safe to say we have very pervious soils.

Can you not send just your wash water (when using soap) to a drain field and the regular permeate discharged to the surface?

Recommendations I have seen include neutralizing wash water before discharging. I add sodium bicarbonate to my wash tank before draining. This is after soap or acid. So should not matter if wash or rinse going different places.

[AdirondackSap]

Wow a lot of good information here. Ive always just sent my permeate water down a drain pipe out the back end of the sugarhouse. Ive always thought it was just distilled water. At the end of the season i bring my membrane in to be cleaned so i never send out soap or anything into the drain. In new york city there drinking water is purified by RO and they just send the water down the drains and lands in the atlantic. I just dont see how A few thousand gallins of permeate would through off the ph in a stream with hundreds of gallons of water passing by a minute.

[ToadHill]

Check this out.

http://www.nysmaple.com/files/The%20Pipeline/2011-3-Fall_Pipeline_LTR_-_FINAL.pdf

[wiam]

Check this out.

http://www.nysmaple.com/files/The%20Pipeline/2011-3-Fall_Pipeline_LTR_-_FINAL.pdf

Believe I have seen similar in VT. Citric acid can be ordered online in 10-25lb bags much cheaper than leader. I also use that to do an acid wash on the ro. Sodium bicarbonate will also neutralize the pH before dumping. I have read to make sure not to run the sodium bicarbonate through the membranes. The citric acid should not harm them as that is what leader recommends for an acid wash.

[NH Maplemaker]

Thank you very much everyone! This has been very informative, great stuff!

[drewlamb]

Well, RO drain field project is complete. Soil dug out nicely - no ledge. Floor drain, RO, and hood condensate/wash sink will all head to two parallel drain lines. Each are 40' long and about 3' deep with 2' of drain rock under and a foot over. Typical septic design with a distribution box. Will keep my fingers crossed but not anticipating trouble with that kind of capacity and well drained soils made from glacial till. Paid a friend and neighbor to dig for me with his small excavator, and all told came out under $1500 including $700 in rock alone. Now on to pouring the pad and lots of carpentry. Can't say how many times I've heard and read to build your sugarhouse bigger than you think you need. I wish I had known. This is our largest addition since the sugarhouse was built in '07, but I think I've added on just about every year!

Would still love to hear from anyone who has done anything similar. Has to be someone out there... Thanks to all again for the advice and suggestions.