To live or not to live-RIBEIRAS de PILAR-that is the question?

[eagles100]

I'm not sure how much the water filtration system costs because it was in the house when we bought it.

We are hooked up to the city sewer system so obviously some areas of Riberas don't have septic tanks on their property.

[bwhite1948]

Can't answer about the cost of installing a water filter system as they were building the house when I bought it & it was included. My water is drinkable. I'm by myself & have lived here 4 years & have never had to have the septic system. I'll send you a private message. Look up at the top of the page where there's a faint envelope. It will turn red when I send the message.

FYI, you will extend the life of your septic system if you clean it out every few years. Don't wait until you have issues.

[Ginger]

Thanks for the heads up.

[gwynne]

We are still using the septic system that was on the property when we bought it....10 years ago....and have never had it cleaned. Having lived in the country, we knew what makes for a happy septic tank and our remodel kept that in mind: Septic tank for black water and shower water only and well vented. Water with bleach goes to a separate drain field. Water from the sinks goes to another drain field. Water from the horse-blanket washer goes down the drive and ends up under the plants. Every so often we put a little yeast into the tank just to keep the gremlins happy.

A couple of years ago we noticed that the mandarin orange tree had taken a growth spurt and was producing like crazy. Then I figured out why.....it's about 10 feet from the tank. We've quit eating the oranges.

[sirgadabout]

The septic systems I'm familiar with require a 1000 gallon tank and a drain field that uses a lot of land area, and that land needs to have grass growing over the drainfield; buildings or pavement covering the drainfield prevent it from operating. Riberas del Pilar does not look suitable for proper drain fields.

You can get a better idea of what I mean by putting septic tank into google search or going to the URL below which will give you many safe web pages to study about septic tanks.

https://www.google.com/webhp?tab=mw&authuser=1&ei=fGkHVOvrCYnMsQTw94GAAw&ved=0CAUQqS4oAg#authuser=1&q=septic+tank

Are they using some other type of system in Riberas del Pilar? And if so what is it?

[RVGRINGO]

A properly designed septic system does require a drain field, sized to the correct capacity for the soil, and can operate indefinitely without maintenance, so long as the homeowner doesn‘t kill it with inorganics. However, there are very few such systems in this area. Most are basic cesspools with no drainage field. Such systems are not permitted in most of the USA.

[gringal]

A properly designed septic system does require a drain field, sized to the correct capacity for the soil, and can operate indefinitely without maintenance, so long as the homeowner doesn‘t kill it with inorganics. However, there are very few such systems in this area. Most are basic cesspools with no drainage field. Such systems are not permitted in most of the USA.

When I lived in a summer cabin area which had become a year around residence for many, the lots were small and the septic systems needed to be pumped on a yearly basis, or else. We can't compare the Riberas lots to the spacious properties on the Westside or elsewhere, where there is adequate land for the leach field. It all depends on the size of your lot as well as the natural drainage.

[Snafu]

Amen RVGringo. A septic system should last the life of the house and never need pumping. At least that's the way it was until all these "Common Cored" Engineers decided to see how complicated they could make it. Stop flushing your TP.

[sirgadabout]

Some of these posts used the term Septic Tank and maybe some of those with a lot of land do have a septic tank, you can find the description of septic tank at the following URL

https://www.google.com/webhp?tab=mw&authuser=1&ei=fGkHVOvrCYnMsQTw94GAAw&ved=0CAUQqS4oAg#authuser=1&q=septic+tank

But since a septic system requires a drainfield that uses a lot of land area, they are not suitable for densely built communities like what Riberas del Pilar has become and septic tanks should be prohibited in areas adjacent to water bodies with fish or shellfish intended for human consumption, improperly maintained and failing septic systems contribute to pollution levels that can force harvest restrictions and/or commercial or recreational harvest closures.

But what I have learned is that almost all of the properties in Riberas del Pilar do not have a septic tank but a cesspool, you can find the description at https://www.google.com/webhp?tab=mw&authuser=1&ei=fGkHVOvrCYnMsQTw94GAAw&ved=0CAUQqS4oAg#authuser=1&q=cesspools and cesspools must be pumped out every three or 4 months, which is not cheap otherwise raw sewage is running out into the streets and can and does have a filthy odor. Even if you have your cesspool pumped regularly, your neighbor will not and it has been reported that at times the streets are full of water overflowing from the cesspools and the odor is overcoming.

[Snafu]

You may be overly concerned. The information you have as well as what I've posted below comes from the States. Everything is illegal in the States. The sewage systems down here (Cesspools) have been around since the 1400's. The installation is everything. You need to dig down below the clay to sand or gravel. Once installed correctly, the solids fall to the bottom of the tank and the liquids drain off. The correct size for the number of occupants in the house will insure the solids break up before the tank fills. Not filling the tank with TP is mandatory. The cesspool failure criteria below is probably accurate but should never become a problem if installed and used correctly.

Several years before I moved here I built another new house in the States. The county required me to have, if I remember right, a Whitewater system. This system required electricity or the system wouldn't work. That's insanity. What we have down here has worked for 700 years without electricity.

Are there places in Riberas where the systems have failed? You bet. So do Whitewater systems (3 times in the 2 years I lived there) and so do city sewer systems. Bottom line, if installed correctly and used correctly, it should last the life of the house without pumping.

Don't be too concerned about the lake. There's entire subdivisions here in Riberas that pipe their raw sewage directly to the center of the lake.

From Inspectapedia:

What is a cesspool? A cesspool combines the septic treatment tank and absorption system into a single component. A cesspool is not a septic tank and does not work like one.

In its most basic and traditional form a cesspool is a hole in the ground to receive sewage: the walls of the "hole" are lined with stone or concrete block or (safer) pre-cast concrete (photo) to form a masonry-lined pit into which sewage is discharged. Solids (sewage from the building) remain in the pit, effluent is absorbed into soil below and at the sides of the cesspool. Solids settle to the bottom, floating grease and scum collect at the top, and liquid seeps into the ground, initially through the bottom and most of the time through the side of the cesspool.

Cesspools as a means to dispose of sewage have been around since the late 1400's at the beginning of the Renaissance. (Before that people simply tossed their night soil into the street.) While cesspools have been used for a long time, since the development of the more modern septic system (tank and drain field) cesspools have often used where there is limited physical space (no room for a leach field), and perhaps where the soil absorption rate was high such as areas of gravel or sandy soils.

For most buildings and onsite waste disposal installations which use a "cesspool", you should consider the use of a cesspool as an obsolete, limited capacity system likely to need replacement, and involving significant cost. Some immediate concerns are stated next.

Cesspool Failure Criteria (MA)

Failure Criteria for Cesspools: If the waste level is within 12" of the inlet pipe near the top of a cesspool the system is at end of life and needs to be replaced. Some municipalities and experts will state other distances. In Massachusetts according to the Massachusetts Title 5 Septic Law the following are considered a failed or unacceptable cesspool installation:

• Less than 6inches of freeboard in the cesspool - this means that the top of sewage inside the cesspool is within six inches of the bottom of the inlet pipe
• Less than 1/2 day's storage - the free volume (air) inside the cesspool is less than will hold the number of gallons of waste and wastewater equaling the typical daily use of the cesspool system
• Cesspools located within100 ft. of a pond or dug well (surface water supply) are unacceptable
• Cesspools located within 50 ft. of a private well (modern sanitary well) are unacceptable
• Cesspools located between 50 and 100 ft from a private well if the well fails bacteria test are also unacceptable
• In some states including Massachusetts, cesspools located within Zone 1 of a public well are considered failed and unacceptable
• In most jurisdictions, board of health (BOH) evaluation is required if a cesspool is located within 50 feet of any surface water such as a lake, pond, stream, or river.

A cesspool needs replacement if it meets any of these failure criteria. While a septic company may offer to pump, partially pump out, or agitate or aerate the bottom sludge in the cesspool in an effort to extend its life, these procedures are potentially very dangerous (see Cesspool safety Warnings and at best will give only temporary relief.

Where a new cesspool of traditional sort is going to be installed you should at least use a concrete pre-cast model with a safe cover (see photos at left and above).

Fortunately there are alternative onsite wastewater disposal alternative designs which can handle limited or even zero-space sites, so a simple cesspool as a destination for blackwater is no longer the only choice for limited-space sites.

Are Cesspools Even Legal?

Watch out: cesspools are not legal for use as wastewater treatment and disposal systems. In some areas existing cesspools used for wastewater handling [no conventional cesspool adequately treats wastewater] may be "grandfathered" in and permitted to continue in use.

But home buyers purchasing a property served by a cesspool should keep in mind not only the limited function of such systems but the significant cost that will be faced when the system is no longer functional - because at that time the local authorities may require that a different, more effective wastewater treatment system be installed, such as a septic tank and drainfield. And space limitations on a property can cause real trouble when the cesspool has to be abandoned.

Cesspools are flatly declared "not legal for use as wastewater treatment and disposal systems" in other jursidictions such as in the Alaska state sanitary code. [4]

[sirgadabout]

A porous cesspool would be one thing but the cesspools on prospective properties I’ve looked at are plastic watertight tanks, not meant for leaching; only allowing for regular professional cleaning by a pump truck.

[Snafu]

Then it's no longer a cesspool, it's a storage tank. My neighbor replaced their cesspool with a storage tank thinking it would end a cockroach problem. Seems to be a fad lately. You sure you're not looking at the aljibe?

[sirgadabout]

I couldn't get the lid off the ajibe to see what was going on there, when I do what will I find?

[johanson]

In as much as an Aljibe is an underground storage tank that holds water for your house, garden etc, I would hope that you would have clean looking water. The trouble is often these tanks need to be cleaned out because the water supplied by SIMAPA (our water utility) sometimes is not as clean as we would like it to be. And particulate matter could settle to the bottom of the tank.

It all depends upon the neighborhood. And years ago in RIBEIRAS de PILAR there were certain areas that received dirtier house water than others. I don't know about today, I say house water rather than drinking water because usually the water provided by the water utility isn't quite clean enough to drink

[gringal]

They sell the purification tablets that should be put in the aljibe once a month, inside the Handy Mail store in Ajijic.

The tank itself should be cleaned out on a yearly basis, ideally. Otherwise, your shower and dishwashing water is likely to be pretty dirty. I'm assuming you're using bottled drinking water.

[Snafu]

I wouldn't put any purification tablets in the aljibe. If you want to get rid of particle matter, that will drop to the bottom of the tank. If you want to purify the water for in-house use, filter it. Whatever the crap is in the purification tablets, you'll end up drinking it if you put it in the aljibe.

Same goes for the 5 gal water bottles they sell. If you watch how they fill them, they spray a chemical purifier into the bottle, turn it over and fill it with water. No thanks.

[gringal]

I wouldn't put any purification tablets in the aljibe. If you want to get rid of particle matter, that will drop to the bottom of the tank. If you want to purify the water for in-house use, filter it. Whatever the crap is in the purification tablets, you'll end up drinking it if you put it in the aljibe.

Same goes for the 5 gal water bottles they sell. If you watch how they fill them, they spray a chemical purifier into the bottle, turn it over and fill it with water. No thanks.

I added up the cost of drinking bottled water over a year and then conferred with the H2Ole company (El Torito shopping center, downstairs from the theater, in the hallway) . They installed a whole house purification system and it's saved money as well as tasting good. I have my doubts about that bottled water.

[sirgadabout]

Septics101 (Full Course): A Guide to Septic System Maintenance

Funded by a grant from the Washington State Department of health

Learn how on-site sewage systems (septic systems) function and how to take care of them. This video shows the entire course (5 video chapters) and runs about 19 minutes. You can also view each video chapter separately.