The park I manage owns the sewer system. Through the foreclosure, poor management and WI DNR regulations we’ve ended up in a poor situation. All of out sewer goes to holding tanks and then we pay someone to pump it. It’s a losing proposition to say the least, we’re spending over $1000/mo for about 12 tenants. Every time the pumper shows up he’s grinning and I get a belly ache. We got a quote to install a mound system, the company figured $150,000. For clarification a mound system is a standard septic system/ leach field, except where we are it’s heavy clay and we have to haul in the sand for the water to percolate. We own 12 acres across the road so we could go this route but the cost seems a little unrealistic. Any other systems or processes we should entertain?
Mound system for 12 homes should not be $150k. With heavy clay your options are mound system, sand filter, or a system like an Orenco advantex. All are expensive advantex being the most expensive and mound probably the cheapest. Better get more quotes I would think 50 to 75k should be more like it but it there are alot of variables
What are your neighbors doing with their sewage?
Anyone with the WI DNR on here?..if I were to “guess” I’d say their holding tanks have an outlet in to the nearest ravine. Others have mounds.
Thanks @PhillipMerrill, I was hoping you’d chime in. Once I get a soil test we can get additional quotes.
Are there any regulations prohibiting you from purchasing and operating a pumper truck and doing exactly what the septic company is doing on your own? I assume that would be less costly, and since you are not doing it for others you may not have to get a commercial license to do so.
Just thinking out side the box…
That’s a valid point. That could definitely cut the cost. It would be a band-aid to the real problem but could slow the bleeding anyways!
Sometimes the most cost effective way is to close down the park and sell the property. Owning your own pumping truck, you NEED a license, over a certain weight need a CDL, and there is a hefty fee usually to dump the sewage if even some municipality would even want to deal with YOUR problem!!!
I built a few tiny homes on wheels, just for fun… during my research phase, I came across the practice of using composting WC’s… ! Certainly at first glance I didn’t have a favorable reaction , however upon further investigation and many 1st hand reports I have changed my viewpoint to being open to using them. I wonder if there may be an opportunity for you to see if this could work into your Park’s need?..WC’s swapped-out for composting ones and all other grey water-waste into some sort of minimal treatment/ leaching tank?
Have any Park owners out there know if this could work ??? acceptable to MH tenants?, acceptable to local Health Dept.?.. just an idea that may prove useful to others with similar sewer dilemmas.
Eric