Cheaper Septic Tank Emptying Costs

The rise in fuel prices and the costs involved in disposing of waste have all contributed to the general rise in getting your septic tank emptied, there is however a way for home owners to bring down the cost according to the editors at www.septictankman.com 

Block booking (pun intended) is the way forward, if you and your neighbours can agree to have your tanks emptied on the same day this saves the contractor fuel costs and gives you some bartering power, the more households involved the more discount available.

A similar policy is paying off around the UK as communities get together through social networking, parish councils etc and bulk buy their fuel oil.

Garry Moody from www.septictankman.com explains there are even greater savings to be made as more contractors are now using de-watering tankers, these machines empty your septic tank, separate the waste from the water before pumping the water back into the tank.

This means that the contractor is not unnecessarily carrying and tipping large volumes of water, the savings made can be passed onto the customer and these savings increase if multiple emptying can take place in one visit.

Visit www.septictankman.com for more information

City of Bristol College Use Draindomain.Com Content

Content from www.draindomain.com is being used  by the City of Bristol College as part of their Transport Technology Faculty.


College lecturer David Duckett said "I teach on motor vehicle subjects ranging from school children to adults including many transport managers, a topic common to most of the qualifications is the impact transport makes on the environment. One aspect of that is interceptors and how they work and the DrainDomain.Com website has some of the best diagrams of interceptors I have seen".


Steve Piron from www.draindomain.com added "This is not the first time content from the site has been sourced for educational purposes, in 2009 images were requested by a plumbing lecturer for a national publication and we have had many requests for the use of content for in-house training programmes within the drainage industry".

Wolves boss in £87K marathon run

Wolverhampton Wanderers Chairman Steve Morgan has raised an incredible £87,000 for the international charity WaterAid, by running the London Marathon last month.

Despite suffering a hamstring strain setback just two weeks before, Steve enlisted help from Wolves' medical department to complete the exhausting 26.2 miles in four hours 53 minutes.

The 58-year-old was inspired to run the London Marathon for WaterAid after seeing first-hand what life is like without access to clean water, when he visited Rwanda with the charity in November. "The marathon was tough, but nothing compared to what I saw in Rwanda," he explained.

"The country has moved on a great deal since the 1994 genocide, but a huge issue that remains is child mortality. In Africa, one in five children doesn't make it to their fifth birthday because of diseases caused by unclean water and lack of sanitation."

"We're absolutely thrilled to have raised such a fantastic amount for WaterAid and we'd like to thank everyone who sponsored us, including many Wolves fans who have been magnificent."

The Wolves boss was joined by his friend and colleague, Dave Edwards, for the marathon who also contributed to the immense fundraising effort. With Steve matching all sponsorship pound for pound, the fundraising total of £36,271 has increased to £72,542 – reaching £87,000 with pledges and Gift Aid.


Read more on this story here

Singing Sewermen Raise Cash For WaterAid

A bunch of hardy London sewermen have posted on YouTube a reworded version of the carol Good King Wenceslas.

They hope to stop people washing drain-blocking turkey fat down their sinks this Christmas, while also raising money for WaterAid.

Watch their performance below, or on the BBC News website here.

January Update: With more than 30,000 views already, Thames Water have confirmed their donation of £2000 to WaterAid from the film.

Christmas is always the worst time of year for sewer abuse, which is when people put anything other than human waste or loo roll down drains. And turkey fat is the biggest no-no of all.

In December around 25 per cent more fat goes down drains, forming hideous 'fatberg' blockages when it cools down and sets hard in sewers. An estimated 500 tonnes of lard - the equivalent mass of one million Christmas puddings - is expected to end up in Thames Water sewers this month.

The problem is so bad that Thames Water's sewermen, or 'flushers', who work in the sewers clearing fatbergs, have sung a seasonal plea to their 14m customers to: "Bin it - don't block it."

In a pithy departure from hymn-writer John Mason Neale's 1853 words, The Singing Sewermen have re-written the lyrics to Good King Wenceslas to include this straight-to-the-point advice: "Only what comes out of you, Should go into our pipes."

The choristers' YouTube performance took place in the famous Victorian brick sewers under their base at Wick Lane in Hackney.

Rob Smith, chief Thames Water sewerman and lead chorister, said:  "Sewer abuse a big problem – one well worth making a song and dance about in our view. And it's not every day you get to see a rough-and-ready performance of a Christmas carol by a bunch of guys knee deep in poo.

"Some of our less flattering fans have said our singing is a load of poo, too. Sure, we’re not quite Take That but I’d like to think our vocals have improved a tad on last year's song."

For each hit the carol gets, Thames Water will 'spend a penny' for WaterAid, donating 1p* a time to support the charity's life-saving work to improve access to safe water and sanitation to some of the world’s poorest people.

In July this year the Singing Sewermen cleared 1,000 tonnes of fat - enough to fill nine Double Decker London buses - from the sewers under Leicester Square. But five months on and the lard is back with a vengeance – because of sewer abuse.

Rob added:  "Cooking fat, sanitary items and other nasties that are wrongly put down loos and sinks end up blocking sewers, and in some cases cause sewage to back up into people's homes, which is truly horrific. Our message is simple. If it's not water, toilet tissue or poo, please: Bin it – don’t block it."

Every year 7,000 homes and gardens across London and the Thames Valley are flooded with sewage as a result of sewer abuse.

Sourced from www.wateraid.org with thanks to Thames Water

Concrete Sectional Septic Tanks

SepticTankMan.Com have put together an advise page on circular concrete septic tanks following a number of enquiries in recent weeks.


Concrete sectional septic tanks were seen as a quicker and cheaper option to the traditional brick built systems, this was of course prior to the emergence of modern fiberglass and plastic tanks.

There are plenty of them out there and given that the majority of them will be over 40 years old it is little surprise that they will require some attention.

You can read advice on their construction and how they can be maintained at www.septictankman.com

The SepticTankMan.Com site offers advice on all things septic tank related including many images and animations, they also offer a national emptying and repair service.

Pipe Dreams

If you are looking for a drainage related break  (as if !)  Desparkhotel in Austria has just the thing. They have cleverly utilised concrete sewer pipes to offer accommodation  supplied with 220V power, double bed, skylight window, decorative wall art, double door, storage space, and peace and quiet.

Ideal for any home sick drainage engineer and his spouse, not too sure if you have to sleep in full escape harness and have a gas detector set up at the side of the bed though.

There may also be a rush for the door when you hear the flush of a toilet in the far distance.

Worker rescued after being swept through sewers

Man survives mile-long trip through Missouri sewerage system after becoming unhooked from safety line
A worker who descended into a city sewerage system on Tuesday became unhooked from his safety line and was pushed through a pipe 69cm (27in) wide for more than a mile before his calls for help were heard and he was rescued.

Daniel Collins, of Collins, Missouri, was in a critical condition at St Luke's hospital in Kansas City.

The South Metropolitan fire district chief, Randy Adams, said Collins was being treated for hypothermia and given antibiotics because he may have swallowed sewage.

Collins disappeared soon after 8am on Tuesday after descending into the sewerage system in Raymore. Adams said crews searched manholes along a 1.5-mile route near a golf course.

After about 90 minutes, a firefighter and paramedic, Antonio Smith, heard Collins calling out: "Guys, I'm down here. Can you help me?"

Smith was lowered into the sewerage chamber and found Collins about 3.6 metres down. Collins appeared to have some bruises but was able to speak, Smith told KMBC-TV.

"It was a miracle to find him in that condition," Smith said.

He said he put Collins over his shoulder, and crews topside helped lift him out. Firefighters covered Collins with coats while waiting for an air ambulance.

Adams said Collins "was not totally coherent. He was basically in and out, and he was very weak".

Collins was tethered when he descended into the sewer and was still wearing the harness when he was found. It was unclear how he became unhooked, which allowed him to be pushed through the pipe by rushing water.

Raymore officials said Collins's employer, Rosetta Construction of Springfield, was working on parts of the city's sewerage system.

Sourced from www.guardian.co.uk