Our Elephant Burial Mounds

The main sewage line is a 6" diameter heavy duty plastic pipe that runs through the crawl space. It collects the dirty water from the kitchen, bathroom and vanity and dumps it into a 1000 gallon precast concrete septic tank. The tank is buried in the ground.

The septic tank consists of two chambers. The first compartment allows anaerobic bacteria to begin the process of decomposition and the second chamber diverts the sewage to a system of open drains through which the effluent leaches back into a large drain field.

The drain systems is buried into the large mound of granular material There the effluent is further attacked by aerobic bacteria and the effluent is rendered harmless. Cess pools, and other disposal systems are not allowed by the county where the cabin is located.

The design and installation of the sewage disposal system is regulated by the county and only certified and licensed installers are allowed to construct the system. The soil is tested to determine whether the soil is suitable for leaching and the size of the drain tile field. If the soil is semi-impervious, a large mound of granular material must be built for the tile field. Our installation is of that design.

We humorously call our granular mound our "elephant burial ground". Balsam trees are planted on one side of the mound to hide it from view.