wastewater filter

[daniel_374305792]

Hi everyone, first post for a bit of a new-comer to caravaning. Just returned from a week away (in the rain!) where i noticed a number of vans using some sort of filter on their wastewater outlets and letting the filtered water drain away into the ground as apposed to using the likes of a wastemaster. However my searches on the internet have drawn blanks. Hoping someonr could help answer a few questions:- Are the filters home made? and if so, do all campsites allow the use of such filters? thanks in advance.

Dan

 

[IanP1]

Hi Daniel,

I'm shocked to hear that people are using something like that on a site. All the waste that goes down the sink including washing up luiquid must have been going through the filter and contaminating the ground around the caravan. This would make the ground soaked through and not very pleasent for the next people to use the pitch, why cant they use their waste containers like the rest of us do. I know I like to leave my pitch in a fit state for the next person to come on and enjoy the site not have to wade through soggy ground from some inconsiderate caravaner.

 

[RogerL]

Kitchen waste water is sewage and it's illegal to discharge as ground water.

There are one or two lazy, inconsiderate, caravanners who do this but the rest of us take our waste tanks to the sewage point for emptying.

 

[ProfAlGoogle]

Many years ago when ralling With the Caravan Club, it was common practise for members to make there own soak away's from if I remember rightly 4.5" diameter plastic pie about 18" in length with a blanking plate on one end and a screw fitting on the other, then drilled with a series of holes underneath, then on arrival at site(normally a farmers field from which he had just turned the sheep out) you would fill it with grass and connect your waste pipes to it, but these were eventually banned many years ago by the club.

Allan & Gill.

 

[ProfAlGoogle]

Pie???? Sorry should be pipe.

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Although technically the waste from the kitchen sink/wash hand basin/shower is a form of foul sewage soapy water will not harm the ground sub strata. The cooking oils etc., from the sink may have detrimental effects on the land but soapy water is OK. My father would use the soapy water from the bath in summertime to spray the runner beans. etc. from black/green fly and also water the vegetables. We always had first class vegetables no matter whether there was a water shortage or not. I now do likewise with the soapy water from the bath on my vegetable plot. I will agree I do not use the water from the kitchen sink or the utility room.

 

[daniel_374305792]

thanks for your replies. I was assuming that these filters would be extracting any contaminants from the water, as say a charcoal filer does for drinking water, obviously not the case

 

[Robert_374242026]

There use to be a firm selling a container you filled up with fresh grass then by connecting it to the waste outlet and the other end to a suitable place to drain off.At the show we were at they had a working display going and they put all sorts of liquid through it and it all came out quite clear.

 

[Surfer]

We let all the shower water drain into the ground undeer the caravan however the washing up water goes into the waste master. Anyway what about when people go on rallies. Do you think they take their waste water home with them?

 

[RogerL]

Surely a rally field has to have a supply of fresh water and facilities for disposing of toilet and other sewage?

 

[IanP1]

I agree, I dont think that people will go away on a rally without the facilaties of fresh running water and a waste disposal point. No Ian I dont think they go home with their waste water, but would you like to go onto a pitch that has been made wet and possibly smelly by an inconsiderate caravaner, I wouldn't like it and I wouldnt think you would either. To me this is just being lazy, not wanting to walk to the disposal point, ok you could say well the ground gets wet when it rains but rain water doesn't have detergents or soap residue from your kitchen or shower or bathroom basin. What difference does it make to wheel or carry your waste with you when you go to empty the toilet. If you have to refill your fresh water container then the water you have used has gone somewhere, 40ltr fresh water in = 40ltr of waste water out in some form. Sites owners/managers go to a lot of trouble to make the site and pitches clean tidy and fit for our enjoyment, why spoil it for the next person.

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Although I have previously stated that soapy water does not have harmful effects on the ground sub strata or plant life I will agree that it would not be a pleasant welcome to find that the pitch is sodden from a previous inconsiderate caravanner who was too lazy to empty the waste at the disposal point. The time and effort required to carry out this basic but essential task is very little and should come as second nature to the caravanner.

There was a discussion on this forum several months ago where some camp site owners requested that the soapy water be deposited on their shrubs as a result of the drought last year. I believe this was more prevelant in the south east when the hose pipe ban was on.

 

[IanP1]

That I can understand Colin, not wasting water during a drought, this is a good idea to keep the plants and shrubs alive, but not to let your waste just drain onto the ground to save the persons legs walking across to the disposal point. ok some people may not have waste containers like wastemaster or similar, I had the black waste container until recently but I had a trolly to carry it. If people want to use the caravan site facilaties they should respect the property, would they just let their waste from the sink or shower at home spill out over the floor no they wouldnt so why do it when they go away.