To Richmond and Rubio residents

Richmond, Iowa

Aug. 21, 2009

To the editor:

    We found an article by Jeff Thomann, County Sanitarian in the Fall Home Improvement paper put out by the Kalona News quite interesting. In it he states, and we quote, ?Since much of Washington County has clay soil, said Thomann, the most common system for Washington County uses sand filters. The wastewater first enters the septic tank, where most of the solids settle. From there the water passes through buried trenches of sand that filter out even more organic material. Microorganisms in the sand ultimately break down this waste. From the sand filter the water is dispersed through an underground drainage field into the soil where the last of the organic material is decomposed. Where the water table is close to the surface, there must be extra containment for the dispersal fields such as plastic liners.?

    Garden and Associates states in their preliminary report, and we quote. ?Following a review of the Washington County Soil Survey, an investigation of Richmond soils by a Soil Scientist, and considering the space limitations between buildings, it was determined the water table, soils and space available was unsuitable.? (on-site treatment)

    If you remember the ?Soil Scientist? was just a book they got their information from. Thus, according to Jeff Thomann, Richmond soil is not a problem, the water table is not a problem. While we agree there are space limitations and each household in Richmond may not be able to have their own sand filter, a larger sand filter that could handle the 45-50 houses that need to be brought up to code could be engineered.

    We spoke with Kevin Middleschwart, a supervisor from Warren County. He said that is the type system they use in Warren County for small towns. He further stated that all you have to do is pump your septic once every five years. He said they have a lagoon in Warren County, and they have had nothing but problems with it.

    If Richmond or Rubio used this type of system, those already up to code would have to do nothing. We may not be engineers, but this sounds like a logical, fiscally responsible, and sensible way to take care of this problem.

Bill and Bonnie Knutson