School's septic system not functioning properly

The septic field at the Summerland School is not performing "as expected" and hasn't been since October.

Brian Degen, of Olsson Associates, and Jacob Sertich, of Wilkins Architecture Design Planning, met with Summerland Board of Education members, July 12, to explain possible fixes to the problem.

According to Degen, two elements - gallons per day and percolation rate - are key to the system's design.

Prior to the system's construction, engineers intially estimated 8,000 gallons per day.

After comparing Summerland with other same-size schools, and factoring in low-flow fixtures, Morrissey engineering officials estimated 2,500 gallons a day for school usage. Degen designed a system that can handle 5,000 gallons per day.

Intially, a problem with the water meter arose. After it was fixed, Degen said between 1,500 and 2,000 gallons per day are entering the system.

"We're taking significantly less to the septic than it's designed for. It should be easily able to handle the flows that are going to it," Degen said.

Next, engineers looked at the percolation rate, which measures the number of minutes it takes for an inch of water to go into the ground.

The intial rate was five to six minutes inches per inch.

"That's fast," Degen said. "It's sand out here, that's to be expected."

Summerland's system was designed at 20 minutes per inch.

According to Degen, when the system was built, it recorded at four minutes per inch. That perc rate would require another layer of soil to be brought in prior to the building of the system.

"The contractor who built it did one more perc test and it came back at 30 minutes per inch," Degen said. "At the time, 30 minutes seemed extremely conservative since two tests came back at five to six."

The system was designed for 5,000 gallons a day at 30 minutes

Degen and a geothermal engineer from Olsson's Lincoln office, performed additional perc tests on the leach field in mid-May.

"All four corners were dry. There was no water there. We drilled down to four feet," Degan said.

The testing area in the middle of the field was draining at 150 minutes per inch.

"I can't tell you why it's percing at 150 minutes per inch, but that's what it appears to be."

Degen said he reached out to other experts, who asked if any contaminants, like paint or oil, had been put in the drains.

The answer is no, according to Degen.

In order to fix the leaky leach field, Degen suggested expanding it into the current reserve area.

"We'll have to have another reserve area, which will have to be in the discus field," Degen said.

Finke asked why the discus area will be used as the reserve.

"It's the closest area we can use," Degen said.

"Will you help pay for moving the discus?" the superintendent asked.

Degen said the discus ring may not need to be relocated as long as no hard surfaces are placed on it.

Board member Steven Thiele asked if an alternate reserve area could be identified later.

Degen said yes.

The State of Nebraska is "on board" with the fix, according to Degen. A revised plan will need to be submitted, along with a letter and appropriate permit to build the addition.

One requirement will be to have it pumped from one zone to the other zone. State regulations regarding perc testing will be in effect in the new field.

The current reserve area currently is set-aside ground at this time. It has drained consistently, during testing, at the five- to six-minutes-per-inch rate. After saturating the area for a couple weeks, tests came back between 10 and 20 minutes per inch.

"If we use 20 per inch, the reserve area alone should be able to handle 5,000 gallon a day, if it's 20 minutes per inch," Degen said. He expressed a lack of confidence in those numbers, due to the how the rates changed in the original field.

President Ed Nordby asked if the water table affected the leach field.

According to Degen, no. "Groundwater is 100 feet down."

Degen said the original installer contractor can get the new drain field installed before school starts.

Nordby questioned the cost of the project.

Sertich said, "We're still working on that."

Degen said he isn't confident about the proposed fix.

"I'm not confident, I'm going to be honest. These soils out here are doing things nobody has seen before," he said.

"What makes us think this will work," Jeremy Wagner asked.

"It's barely not working. It's not like it's shooting 2,000 gallons out of the ground a day. From what we can tell, it's just barely not working. Even if it percs at 150 minutes per inch, we should be able to handle up to 3,500 gallons per day," Degen said.

The alternative, if the extended leach field does not work, is to install a lagoon. Degen said it could be installed on the current leach field.

Degen requested the board approve expansion of the current system into the reserve area and to identify the new reserve area.

"So there's going to be a cost associated to us that we don't know yet, but we're supposed to approve this tonight. That might not work," board member Nate Schwager said.

Sertich said the approval is for paperwork to proceed to the state.

The project will go before state officials, who will review the plan.

"If they have any hesitancy, we'll pass that along," Degen said.

"I'm hesitant," Schwager said.

"We build more area, we have more area for it to go down. The more gallons it will perc," Degen said. "I can't answer if it will slow down in the future.