Hi all,
I'm new to this forum - very appreciative for the content and effort by all of you!
I've done a solar outdoor shower before, but now have a new project that requires a different approach for drainage... this outdoor shower will be our only one (my partner, myself and 2 year old son) and we're discussing whether or not we should route it into the septic system we're installing.
The septic design has a single toilet (1.6gpf) going into two 55gal drums which are tied together. The second drum will have a baffle for draining the liquid waste into the drainfield, which consists of 20 ft of "gravel-less chamber", a substitute for gravel filled trenches that seems to be more effective.
The property owner, a good friend of mine, has suggested we route the shower water into the 55gal drums along with the toilet water - in other words, send the black water from toilet and grey water from shower through the system together. He feels like this will cycle it quicker and help with decomp process.
I suggested keeping them totally separate - and simply digging a big cone-shaped hole, filling with pea gravel or washed rock, then letting it drain naturally while planting some thirsty plants around it. When he suggested tying it into the drainfield (which is about 20ft away from the shower location, so totally feasible), I felt like it would be better to keep the soapy gray water out of the solid waste drums and tie it into the drainfield after the drums... Hope this is clear.
Any input? Will the high water volume from the shower help the solid waste decomp, or hurt it? For what its worth, we only plan to use bio-compatible soaps.
Thanks!
