How does a soakaway drain work?

[rafletcher]

We had to do the 1x 1 x 1 hole, fill it with water and then let the building inspector see it fail to empty. We then got permission to drain our roof rain runoff into the sewer.

Recently a property up the road from us applied for planning to build 6 houses. The "soak away" test results were that the water level in the pit increased....  All our water goes into the sewer.

[Wowbagger]

Jan's sister lives in a palatial place oop int' 'ills near Burrrnlih. They are so far away from civilisation they have neither mains water nor sewerage. Further up the hill is a shallow pit fenced off from the sheep and that's where their water comes from. There's a large and expensive treatment plant in the house to make sure it's suitable for human consumption - although they tend to buy vast quantities of bottled water from the supermarket for that purpose. I do recall, when they had a simple ultra-violet light to treat the water, washing my hands in it and the soap forming a very pretty blue scum around the sink.

Down the hill, buried in the farmer's field, is a soakaway for all the sewage. They have lived in that house for well over 20 years and haven't had a problem.