Septic Tanks are one of the most important parts of waste water treatment. They are among most common components in the entire world with regards sewage treatment. For almost all homes that are not located in highly populated cities with public sewers, septic tanks are the primary way private waste water is disposed of.In many rural areas of the country septic tanks is the norm. They have replaced older and less efficient means of waste disposal. 

One older method of waste water disposal was the OEM water dispenser use of a cesspool. A cesspool is a large hole lined with rock in most cases. The sewage would be deposited into the pit and slowly leach out.The problem with this method was that there was no way to breakdown the sewage. The sewage simply exited the cesspit and left behind solid residue. The solid reside did not break down and therefore the cesspit became clogged and would need to be tended to.

 These devices were unhealthy, costly, and dangerous.Modern septic tanks have taken the idea of the cesspool and greatly improved upon it. For starters they incorporate what is called a leach field. A leach field is an area, sometimes very large, sometimes small, where the effluent will exit the septic. This water then travels through a material of crushed stone or other similar material. This further cleans the water.The size of the leach field depends upon how much waste water is going to be considered. A leach field is something that is not noticeable. All the action is underground.

 It looks like a normal lawn. But in reality, underneath the earth is material which help filter out impurities from the water.Secondly, and of great importance, is the fact that a septic tank is not simply a large stone basin. A septic tank is usually a material such as a hard plastic. This is then situated inside a concrete box. These precautions are very important as one of the reasons cesspools were such a problem was that they would often collapse. Septic tanks are constructed in a manner that this is almost never a problem.Water enters into a septic tank from a house through a pipe. 

There is also an exit pipe that takes the waste water and puts it out into the leach field. Once the waste enters into the septic tank, the water rises to the top. The sold waste material falls to the bottom of the tank.While the tanks do need to be cleaned out, they do not require the frequency of emptying that cesspools do. A reason for this is that septic tanks are septic environments. This means that the conditions in them are anaerobic. This process breaks down the material and limits the amount of space it takes up.The water that rises to the top of the tank is expelled and purified through its travel through the leach field. The solid waste at the bottom breaks down due to the septic environment and is mostly expelled as it turns into a liquid that the tank is capable of expelling.