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What is a Septic Tank?

A septic tank is a two, or three chamber system which retains sewage from a property for sufficient time to allow the solids to form into sludge at the bottom of the tank. Here, the sludge is naturally broken down. The remaining liquid, or effluent, in the tank then drains from the tank by means of an outlet pipe.

Septic tanks are usually installed where there is no mains drainage available. Most septic tanks are buried in the ground.

How does it work?

Any sewage treatment system is basically just a way of slowing up the sewage to allow sufficient time for enzymes to naturally break up the contamination. A septic tank is basically a collection point for sewage, which allows the sludge to settle out of it. The liquid effluent on top of the sludge has a relatively low level of contamination which can safely flow out of the tank into a soakaway and then into the ground in a drainage field. Naturally-occurring microbes, which live on the walls of the septic tank, produce enzymes, which help to break up the sludge into CO2 and H2O.

What is the difference between a septic tank and a Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)?

Small treatment plants usually have access to a supply of electricity which drives a small pump to aerate the wastewater. Septic tanks have no power demand and no moving parts, so they are cheaper to buy, install and run, but the final effluent will not be as high quality. The effluent from a septic tank will always require further treatment in a soakaway.

Small wwtps are often referred to as Package Treatment Plants, or PTPs. This is because they arrive at your house on the back of a lorry, as one "package".

Why do you need to empty a septic tank?

It's unlikely that all the sludge at the bottom of the tank will disappear. It will build up over time, so needs to be taken out of the tank. A contractor will take the sludge, but put the watery effluent back in, which is good, because that effluent contains billions of the good microbes necessary for your tank to work. It's probably better not to refer to it as emptying your septic tank, but "desludging" your septic tank.

My tank has a scum on top. Is this OK?

Yes, as long as it is liquidy. This scum consists of Fats, Oils and Greases (FOG), from cooking and washing up etc. Over time the enzymes will break them down. If the scum gets too thick, it can dry out and get solid. This stops air getting to the effluent. The microbes in the effluent work better if they have access to oxygen from the air. If the scum is hard and dry, it's probably a sign that you should get in a contractor to empty the tank – sorry, desludge your tank.

How often should I desludge my tank?

Under normal circumstances, once a year is plenty. Certainly, if you desludge more often, you should be using bioaugmentation products.

We are installing a new tank. What do we need to do?

A really useful document is available from the Environment Agency. Pollution Prevention Guidelines PPG4 "Disposal of Sewage where no Mains Drainage is Available." Here is a link to it

http://publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/pdf/...

Make sure the person installing your tank has read this. Make sure they do a proper percolation test so that the soakaway is the right size.

What is Bioaugmentation?

The addition of bacteria. This augments the existing biological population, or biomass.

Why do we need to add bacteria?

Bacteria, like all living things, die. If the environment is perfect, the biomass will be self-sustaining; new bacteria replace those that die. But, a septic tank is rarely a perfect environment and some strains of bacteria find it harder to live there than others. The regular addition of a bioaugmentation product guarantees your tank has the right number of the right bacteria in it.

Is there anything I shouldn’t flush down the loo or pour down the sink?

Bleach or any "biocide". Paints, solvents or caustics. Try and limit the amount of kitchen fats and coffee grounds to a minimum. Your septic tank is a biological solution for treating biological waste. It cannot cope with physical blockages, so cigarette ends, sanitary products, balls of hair and any paper other than soft tissue will cause a physical blockage that will require physically unblocking. No amount of bacteria will move Junior's nappy

Can I just put a dead rabbit in my septic tank to get it started?

This is a classic example of using the wrong sort of bacteria. The bacteria which your tank needs, exist in nature in the soil, not an animal's gut. So, no. Ask us for a free start-up pack with the first year's supply that you buy.

My tank stinks! What’s wrong?

Probably, the biomass has died. You must add some bacteria to the septic tank immediately. Then try and work out what has killed the biomass. It's highly likely to be a cleaning product you use.

What are my legal obligations is I live in a property with a septic tank?

You need to maintain your septic tank in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and you need to keep a record of all maintenance, this includes regular emptying.......sorry, desludging.

British Water is a trade association for the water industry. They have written some excellent Codes of Practice which cover the installation and maintenance of small wastewater treatment plants. They are free and available online at:

www.britishwater.co.uk/publications/Publications_a...

These may be useful, particularly if you don't have access to the original documentation that came when your septic tank was first installed.

You may need to Register your Septic Tank with the Environment Agency (EA). You may even need to obtain an Environmental Permit from the EA. Whether you need to or not depends on many things, including where you live and the amount of sewage discharging into your septic tank.

Basically, the best way to make sure you don't fall foul of the law is to check out the EA's website:

www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/11875...

How much does it cost to register my Septic Tank with the EA?

Nothing.

How do I register?

You can do it by post, but it's very straightforward to register online on the EA website.

We have a reed bed. Will your products block this up?

No. They can only help.

What’s in OE42?

What you can see is bran. The bran carries 14 strains of bacteria, a bio-enhancer (which is a little food for the bacteria) and micro-nutrients which give them strength. All of these are much too tiny to see. There are 5 billion bacteria in each gram of OE42. So there are 125,000,000,000 bacteria in every 25 gram sachet. The sachet is water soluble. It disappears in seconds.

How do we dose OE42?

Once a month, last thing at night, drop one sachet of OE42 into the loo, and then flush the loo.

Why last thing at night?

This means that the bacteria spend as much time as possible in the pipes leading to your septic tank forming a biomass on the inside of the pipes as well as in the tank itself.

My local farmer has offered to desludge my tank. Is this OK?

By law, desludging should be carried out by an operator registered for the carriage of such waste by the Environment Agency. It's unlikely that your friendly farmer is registered.

How do I find someone to desludge my tank?

Look up Waste Disposal in Yellow pages, or enter Waste Disposal in a search engine. If you're new to the area, ask your neighbours. If you have a septic tank, probably so do they. It's a great way to introduce yourself -much more original than asking for a cup of sugar!

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This Privacy Policy applies to Oasis Environmental Ltd. (along with all subsidiaries, affiliates, successors and assigns thereof, referred to hereinafter collectively as “Oasis Environmental Ltd”, "we", "our" and/or "us"), our websites and services. Oasis Environmental Ltd knows that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your expectation that we will do so carefully and sensibly.

By visiting this or another Oasis Environmental Ltd website displaying this Privacy Policy or a link thereto (a "Website", or collectively the “Websites”), or by otherwise interacting with Oasis Environmental Ltd you agree to accept the practices described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is further subject to the Oasis Environmental Ltd Services Agreement related to the Oasis Environmental Ltd services you utilise and/or purchase. For questions on this Privacy Policy please contact our team via the contact information found on this Website.

Oasis Environmental Ltd values your privacy and is dedicated to protecting your personal information and providing you with notice about what personally identifiable information we collect and how it is used, what choices you have regarding the collection, use and distribution of that information, the security procedures we implement to protect that information and what access you may have to correct any inaccuracies in the information we have collected from you.

What Information Is Collected
We receive and store any information you enter on our Websites or give us in any other way, such as via telephone, electronic mail, online or otherwise. For example, this information may be collected when you contact us for customer support.

Here are the types of information we gather:

Contact Information: We collect and retain personal contact information that you submit to us voluntarily and this includes, but is not limited to, your name, mailing address, web address, telephone number, and e-mail address. This information may include your full name, mailing address, phone number, email address, and, where provided, your fax number. Such contact information may be used, for example, to communicate with you when necessary with respect to transactions. Additionally, we may collect contact information provided to us during any correspondence relating to customer support, as well as in connection with products and services offered on our Websites.

Financial Information: We collect and retain certain financial information from when you purchase our products and services. For example, when you sign up for any other product or service through Oasis Environmental Ltd, we require you to provide a credit card number and billing address before we will process that application. We will not sell, share or rent any financial information collected from you except as disclosed in this Privacy Policy or as necessary to fulfil any order for our products or services.

Demographic Information: We may collect and store anonymous demographic information (such as your postcode, gender and age), and use this data to tailor your experience on our Websites, provide content that we think you might be interested in, perform general improvements to the Websites, and display the content according to your preferences. Such demographic information may be shared with partners, market researchers and other third parties on an aggregate, non-personally identifiable basis. No personally identifiable information will be linked to such aggregated demographic information that is shared with third parties.

Other Information: We collect and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, our servers track the type of web browser you are using and the page from which you link. Additionally, we log IP addresses (a unique number assigned to every computer on the Internet) in order to improve security, analyse trends and administer the Websites. We may track your movement within the Websites, the third-party website pages from which you were referred, access times and browser types. We use this information to gauge the effectiveness of our Websites, track information for statistical purposes and to improve the products and services we provide. We collect this information to better develop a sense of what services our customers need and identify areas of improvement to the Websites. We may use such information for marketing purposes, and to send information to you that we believe might be of interest. In addition, such information may be shared with partners, market researchers and other third parties on an aggregate, non-personally identifiable basis. No personally identifiable information will be linked to such aggregated information shared with third parties.

We may supplement the information you provide us by acquiring publicly or commercially available information as available in the public domain or from third parties, for instance, to verify your address or to update your information and to create a profile of your preferences. We tie your personally identifiable information to information in the profile, in order to improve the content of the Websites for you or to inform you about products or services that we think will be of interest to you. From time to time, we may also ask you to participate in surveys or other communications conducted by us or third parties designed to help us improve the Websites or the products or services we provide.

Cookies: The Websites use “cookies” such purposes as enhancing your online experience by making it easier for you to navigate through the Websites and making certain features work better. Cookies are text files which are commonly deposited by websites on a user's hard drive when the user visits a website. The file identifies a user's computer and can record the user's preferences and other data about the user's website visit. We do not extract information about individual users during this process. Your web browser may enable you to disable cookies, but please note that certain services may not function correctly without it and your experience on our Websites may be hindered.

Third Party Cookies: We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads on our behalf across the Internet. These companies may collect and use information about your visits to this and other websites and your interaction with our products and services in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. However, no personally identifiable information (such as your name, address, email address or telephone number) will be connected with such information. They may use information about your visits to this and other websites to target advertisements for goods and services and may be used to keep track of user response to each advertisement. These targeted advertisements may appear on our Websites or on other sites that you visit. The anonymous information is collected through the use of a pixel tag or cookies, which are industry standard technologies used by most major websites. If you do not want such companies to collect this information you may opt-out.

To learn more about the use of this information or choose not to have this information used by certain third-party advertising partners, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices. Please note that if you delete your cookies, use a different browser, or buy a new computer, you will need to renew your opt-out choice.

Web Beacons: The Websites may contain electronic images (called a "single-pixel GIF" or a "web beacon") that allow a website to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. No personally identifiable information will be transmitted via web beacons.

Telephone Recording and Monitoring: To ensure Oasis Environmental Ltd customers receive quality service, Oasis Environmental Ltd selects phone calls for recording and/or monitoring. These calls, between Oasis Environmental Ltd customers (or potential customers) and employees, are evaluated by Oasis Environmental Ltd representatives. This is to guarantee that prompt, consistent assistance and accurate information is delivered in a professional manner. In contacting Oasis Environmental Ltd creating an account with Oasis Environmental Ltd, or by otherwise utilising any Oasis Environmental Ltd products or services, you hereby consent to any such call recording and/or monitoring.

How Personal Information Is Used

Our Use: We receive and store any personal information you enter on our Websites or give to us voluntarily in any other way and may use it to contact you from time to time. We take steps designed to ensure that only the employees who need access to your personal information to fulfil their employment duties will have access to it. By registering on a Website and providing your telephone number, you agree that this action constitutes a purchase, enquiry and/or application for purposes of telemarketing laws. Regardless of the fact that your telephone and/or cell number may be listed with the TPS, you are providing your express written consent to receive future information (including telemarketing) about products and services from us and/or our affiliates, and you hereby agree and consent to our contacting you using the information you have provided and will provide to us. This means we may contact you by e-mail, phone and/or cell number (including use of automated dialling equipment and/or pre-recorded calls), text (SMS) message, social networks or any other means of communication that your wireless or other telecommunications device may be capable of receiving (i.e. video, etc.). We may also send you information or offers from time to time to the postal address or email address we have on file (as further outlined in this Privacy Policy). You further acknowledge that you are not required to agree directly or indirectly or enter into an agreement regarding our telemarketing efforts as a condition of purchasing any goods or services from us or our affiliates.

Electronic Mail: From time to time, Oasis Environmental Ltd may use your personal information to contact you by electronic mail concerning our services. These communications are often intended to inform you of important information regarding your account, or about general services provided by Oasis Environmental Ltd and/or its affiliates. If you do not want to receive email from us or our affiliates regarding new services, please click the "unsubscribe" link which is included at the bottom of any email you receive from us. However, in order to fulfil our service obligations to you, we will continue to send you emails regarding your account administration, as well as any necessary information, such as renewal notices and instructions. By providing us with your email address you consent to receiving communications from us electronically and all notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

Service Related Uses: We may use your personal information to contact you about the goods or services you have purchased from us, or for other purposes in which you have expressed an interest, for example, if you have contacted customer service or made an enquiry. We will also provide you with service and account related announcements. For instance, if the delivery of a service or product is delayed we might send you an email, or other message, or if there is some service issue with something you might have ordered. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to cancel your services with us.

Protection of Oasis Environmental Ltd and Others: We may release account and other personal information when we are required to do so by law, court order, subpoena or other government or law enforcement authority or regulatory agency, including ICANN, in order to enforce or apply our Services Agreement or other agreements, or when we believe in good faith that disclosing this information is necessary or advisable, including for example, to protect the rights, property, or safety of Oasis Environmental Ltd, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection, credit risk reduction or other similar purposes. Sites Other Than Oasis Environmental Ltd, Oasis Environmental Ltd has no control over and is not responsible for the privacy policies or information gathering practices of other websites, including those to which we may link and those which may link to us. We strongly recommend that you review the privacy policies of every online service you use before submitting any personal information and direct any concerns to the site administrator of that website.

How Long We Keep Your Personal Data.
We keep information only for as long as we need it to provide you services, manage our business or as required by law or contract. Where you have a contract with us, we will retain your data for the length of the contract, and will further retain that information for a time period consistent with our legal or regulatory responsibilities, after you terminate all your services with us to resolve disputes, enforce our relevant Service Agreement, and to adhere to the technical and legal requirements and constraints related to the security, integrity and operation of the Sites. If you have any questions about how long we will keep your specific data, please contact us.

How We Keep Your Personal Data Safe.
We work to protect the security of your financial information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer ("SSL") software, which encrypts the information you input on the Site. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure and we cannot guarantee its absolute security. You can further help to ensure your security by taking a few simple precautions. For instance, it is important to protect against unauthorised access to your computer, and to be sure to sign off when you are finished using a shared computer.

Limitation Of Liability
Oasis Environmental Ltd assumes no responsibility or liability with regard to any theft, loss, alteration or misuse of personal or other information lawfully provided by Oasis Environmental Ltd to third parties, or with regard to the failure of any third party to abide by this privacy policy or such third party.

Contacting Us.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, you can contact us by writing to us at sales@oasisenviro.co.uk or by mail at Oasis Environmental Ltd, Eaton Place, 114 Washway Rd, Sale, Manchester, M33 7RF.