Septic tanks only work at low rural densities and fail in dense suburbs
Evidence
To put it simply,” a Florida official wrote in 1956, “the septic tank is a country cousin that came to town and promptly got into trouble. In its place – a rural setting – the septic tank and subsurface drain field is a suitable method of domestic sewage disposal, given adequate drainage, soil conditions, and water table; but it was never intended for use in settlements with more than one family dwelling per acre. Even this may be too dense for septic tanks if soil conditions and water tables are not ideal.” To protect the public, therefore, officials needed to do more “to assure wise and orderly development of new neighborhoods.” The use of septic tanks had to be limited, and the construction of neighborhood sewerage systems had to be encouraged. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 388
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Directly supports the septic-tank thread running through this book’s earlier chapters - and gives a crisp formulation connecting a disaggregated waste technology to density limits, which parallels the land-use/environmental-law connection central to the polyad.
- XREF: connects to: Septic systems fail from complex site-specific ecological conditions — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 378; Septic tanks enabled postwar suburban sprawl as much as highways did — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 371; Suburban septic tanks threatened to reverse a century of urban sewer reform — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 389 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Septic tanks enabled postwar suburban sprawl as much as highways did
#expands(0.85) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 371 - Suburban septic tanks threatened to reverse a century of urban sewer reform
#expands(0.80) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 389 - Septic-tank failures caused roughly forty percent of waterborne disease outbreaks
#exemplifies(0.80) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 431