Response to B&W chemicals and their affect on septic systems?

Hampton:

Some will tell you that anything you put through your septic system from the darkroom is not a good idea. If you are only doing B&W with the "normal" chems of developer, stop, and fixer, the chems themselves area all organic and will not hurt anything. The most harmful thing is the residual silver compounds because they kill the "good bacteria" that your septic system needs to work. I live in a house with a septic system, but I do a bit more processing than you mentioned you'd be doing. I haul my spent chems -- dev., fix, selenium toner -- to a friends house that has sewer connection, and the other effluients -- wash waters -- are allowed to run out on the ground, to water the grass, etc. In the winter, when everthing is frozen for about three months, I put the wash waters through the septic system. I live on the side of a hill, and my leach field extends down and away from the septic tank. The excessive amount of water put through the system could be a problem if you have a weak leaching system or you system is getting old, it could be a problem if you flush too much of the bacterial action out, or you find the water is pooling around the leach field. You need to feed your system by adding the available bacterias....whatever that stuff is called. And you probably need to have it pumped and inspected at least once each year to make sure everything is still OK. Frank

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