Ten years ago I inherited the family home in a rural area. My elderly mother still lives there. She's quite independent-minded and prefers to use her own money to pay for maintenance tasks. As a result I didn't become very involved in the day-to-day running of the place but helped out whenever I could.
With a view to moving back there from Dublin in the next few years, I've been looking at taking a more active role in maintenance of the house. One thing that needs to be looked at is the sewerage system. Unfortunately, the system is fairly old—from the early 1960s. It's a concrete septic tank with overflow running into a buried pipe and on to a small stream. Not ideal under any circumstances. There's no sewerage system in the area, although one is promised in the next few years.
There's a plot of land of about 1/3 of an acre on which I would like eventually to grow apple trees and fruit. However, this is situated on low ground 'downstream' of the tank and the outflow, so I'm worried that it might be contaminated. Parts of it are wet. Is it possible to rehabilitate land that has been infected?
I'm now very worried about the implications of having a faulty system but also the potentially high cost of fixing it.
There are two main areas of concern:
1. I don't know whether my father registered the tank when he was alive. Nobody else knows. How can I check this? I know there's a legal obligation to register all tanks.
2. It would be good to get an engineer to come and assess the entire set-up and to outline possible solutions. From doing web searches, the only people who seem to do assessments are companies that sell systems. Is it possible to get a truly independent engineer? Would the county council do this?
Hope I haven't overloaded you with questions! Thanks in advance.
With a view to moving back there from Dublin in the next few years, I've been looking at taking a more active role in maintenance of the house. One thing that needs to be looked at is the sewerage system. Unfortunately, the system is fairly old—from the early 1960s. It's a concrete septic tank with overflow running into a buried pipe and on to a small stream. Not ideal under any circumstances. There's no sewerage system in the area, although one is promised in the next few years.
There's a plot of land of about 1/3 of an acre on which I would like eventually to grow apple trees and fruit. However, this is situated on low ground 'downstream' of the tank and the outflow, so I'm worried that it might be contaminated. Parts of it are wet. Is it possible to rehabilitate land that has been infected?
I'm now very worried about the implications of having a faulty system but also the potentially high cost of fixing it.
There are two main areas of concern:
1. I don't know whether my father registered the tank when he was alive. Nobody else knows. How can I check this? I know there's a legal obligation to register all tanks.
2. It would be good to get an engineer to come and assess the entire set-up and to outline possible solutions. From doing web searches, the only people who seem to do assessments are companies that sell systems. Is it possible to get a truly independent engineer? Would the county council do this?
Hope I haven't overloaded you with questions! Thanks in advance.