Septic Systems

Design experience and forensic engineering experience on more than 40 septic system projects.

Moss Landing Harbor District, CA

Provided technical advice on rehabilitating an unconventional pump station serving restaurants and other commercial buildings. Correctly diagnosed that the pump station was a septic tank that had been converted into a pump station when sewers became available in the...

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Handicapped Housing Development, Monterey County

Provided a conceptual design for an on-site wastewater collection, treatment and disposal system for a 129-unit garden apartment complex for handicapped persons. The design called for a septic tank for each cluster of apartments with a variable grade effluent sewer...

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Stonehurst Subdivision, Contra Costa County

Prepared an evaluation of the sewerage system of an upscale subdivision containing 47 lots. Each house has a septic tank. The effluent from the septic tanks is treated in a recirculating gravel filter and then disposed of in a series of leach fields. The original...

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Mariposa County, CA

Lead engineer on design of a $5 million, EPA Clean Water Grant funded project for three small communities in Mariposa County, CA. Each house had an individual septic tank but disposal was in the community mound systems. At the time, it was the largest mound system...

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Surfacing Septic Tank Effluent

Reviewed voluminous documents and summarized the technical facts for the attorneys for two insurance companies, whose insureds were being sued by a downslope neighbor who claimed that their septic systems were discharging on to his property. Interviewed the...

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Septic System Failure

Investigated why the toilet at a rural residence in Contra Costa County would not flush properly. The tenant had called the County Environmental Health Department and the landlord had responded with a retaliatory eviction. Found that the septic tank and leach field...

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Death from Septic Tank Dry Well, Ventura County.

Unbeknownst to the present homeowners, the septic tank system of their home was equipped with a dry well, rather than a conventional leach field. The dry well was about 3-feet in diameter and 25-feet deep. This type of disposal facility had been permitted until...

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