Septage Receiving Challenges & Solutions

Background:

Septage disposal requirements have come a long way since the days when haulers could simply discharge their loads into an open pit at a sewage treatment plant or off-load them into a field or lagoon. This process was often neither regulated nor monitored. Haulers submitted their own estimates of what and how much they dumped for billing purposes. This practice created a very real threat of ground water, lake and stream contamination.

The EPA issued strict new guidelines (under 40 CFR part 503) concerning septage land disposal. Haulers were given the choice of meeting the agency’s land disposal standards or utilizing the overextended services of existing sewage treatment plants.