Many residents of municipalities and rural areas want a Water Softener System in Marion IA to eliminate hard minerals from the tap water. Rural residents may find softeners especially appealing since they may be dealing with heavy iron content that a softener can eradicate. When a home sewer line is connected to a municipal water treatment plant, water from softener regeneration is simply sent down a drain in the home. People may not want to do this if they have a septic tank, however.
Conflicting Expert Insight
There is disagreement even among the experts as to whether salt-laden water from regenerating a Water Softener System in Marion IA is harmful to friendly bacteria in a septic tank and to the drain field. A study by the University of Wisconsin, for instance, found the salt actually appeared to be beneficial to those bacteria. There also was no harm to the drain field. Other research conflicts with these results and points out potential reductions in the tank’s bacteria, especially if the recharging must be done more than once a week.
Overloading the System
Some people worry sending that much water to the septic tank all at once will overload the system, yet they don’t tend to worry about running a few loads of laundry one after the other or emptying a full bathtub all at once. Unless the tank is unusually small, it should be able to handle the discharge from equipment installed by a company such as Waterhouse Water Systems. Nevertheless, household residents may want to avoid doing laundry on softener recharging day if the discharge empties into the tank. Contact us at your earliest convenience for advice about a specific application.
Using a Sump Pump
A simple solution many homeowners use is to direct the outflow to a sump pump well, which then diverts the water to the yard. This is not harmful to grass, but salt water can gradually corrode sump pump components over many years, so that is a factor homeowners must take into consideration. Sump pumps generally can be purchased for less than $100 at home improvement stores, so replacement cost would be substantially less than needing to repair a septic drain field.
