Septic tanks let builders develop cheap land beyond sewer lines

Evidence

In 1945, the nation’s builders saw only the benefits of using the septic tank. The long years of depression and war had led to a severe housing shortage. The title of a 1948 “March of Time” newsreel summed up the postwar demand – “Needed: More Houses.” To build on a large scale and thus to build cheaply, builders flocked to the suburbs, where large tracts of inexpensive land were readily available. But much of the land at the periphery of cities was well beyond the limits of sewer service. How would builders provide for waste disposal? The septic tank seemed a reasonable solution to a fundamental problem. It was not a new, untested technology. The first patent on the system dated from the early 1880s, and many farmers had relied on septic tanks for decades. Septic tanks were cheap – much cheaper, at least initially, than building a neighborhood or community sewage-treatment plant. In the 1950s, the installation of a septic tank cost less than $300 in many areas, whereas the alternatives might easily be double or triple that amount per house, depending on the size and character of the development. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 376

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Septic tanks enabled postwar suburban sprawl as much as highways did — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 371; Fragmented local jurisdictions let developers evade strict septic regulation by building elsewhere — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 405; Septic-tank regulation was hard because the technology served growth and homeownership — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 441 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Fragmented local jurisdictions let developers evade strict septic regulation by building elsewhere #corroborates (0.85) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 405
• Septic-tank regulation was hard because the technology served growth and homeownership #expands (0.80) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 441
• Builders filled wetlands partly because dredged bay-bottom made cheap fill #exemplifies (0.75) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 661