Fosse 2005

[mascamps.com]

What happens if your fosse doesn't meet the new regulations?

Is it the case that you must change it this year? What happens if you can't?

 

Arnold

 

[Pko]

Hi Arnold,

we are based in the correze and had new septic tanks under the new regulations installed 3 years ago. They told us they would come and check every two years but I thought this being France they will probably forget. Turned out they did come, but also they checked all the septics in the village and they are all from before the new regulations. However none of them have to be upgraded to meet the regulations.

So I think you will be ok.

Paul and Carin

La Grange Vieille  www.lagrangevieille.com

 

[mascamps.com]

Ah, but we're talking 40 or 50 year old tank in our case. Snag is that we don't think we can upgrade it this year 'cos it's looking like it's going to be something around 30.000€ to do it (it's a very big tank).

 

 

Arnold

 

[Miki]

Same question as in other thread, so sorry, same answer !!

OK this is France Arnold !

I went to a rather angry meeting last year for our village and tempers flared all night.

Bottom line....No subventions (grants) available, all gone, sorry, was quoted by the Maire and the man from the company arranging the etudes.

People "So what if we need work done and cannot afford it"

Maire "Get credit from your bank"

People "We won't be able to get enough, we are retired and have no savings"

Maire "Mmmm" followed by a raspberry and a sucking noise, a gallic shrug and laughs all round !

People "So what will happen, if we cannot afford to do the work required"

Maire does same actions as previously.

We have cider and cold crepes and then off we toddle in to the night, none the wiser but now bonded by the fact we are probably all in the merde together !!

So there you have it Arnold, the official response from the honourable, Monsieur le Maire of our village and what will happen.

[Coco]

We had our Maire round recently to look at the alterations we want to make to our barn.  We also asked her about the new regs.  We thought that perhaps it would be more sensible to save some of our money for a new fosse and not do so much to the barn.  Her reaction?  Don't worry about it for at least another couple of years - followed by the inevitable shrug

In fact she seemed to be amazed that we even HAD a fosse!!

[Mikey]

mascamp.com  if you reckon it will be 30.000euro cos you need a big one if i were you i'd get a mini sewage plant, much cheaper.

we have 4 gites and the main house, when we bought the place there were already 3 septic tanks for the gites and nothing for the main house.

when we started looking at putting in a tank for the main house we were lucky in having  french guy in one of the gites that has a freind thats a biologist working for a local firm selling slurry treatment stuff and they also sold mini sewage plants.

he got the guy to come and see us and he told us about the changes in 2005 and recomended we got a sewage plant instead and join all the gites onto it an our current septic tanks would not conform as they were badly installed, no filters and no proper soakaway.

so we got a sewage plant for 2700Ff and it cost 500Ff for man with digger.

i've joint all the gites onto it and saved a fortune, so i would suggest you look into it.

mike

[mascamps.com]

Miki: I suspected as much!

Mike: hundreds of questions...

What's the French for "mini sewage plant"?

What's a mini-sewage plant anyway? I've heard it mentioned but, whilst I understand what a septic tank is, I haven't the foggiest about a mini-sewage plant.

What's the practical differences between a septic tank and a sewage plant?

Are those prices you're quoting right??? Even if the currency is euro, they seem way too low. Certainly the size of your place seems comparable to ours so I'm guessing that the plant wouldn't be drastically different in size. We even have a man with a digger next door who'd jump at the chance to do it free as it would get both of us out of a mess (and a smelly one at that!).

 

 

Arnold

 

 

[benson]

Sorry to be so un informed here but what exactly are the new regs and how do I ensure we comply with them when installing our 2 fosses?

[benson]

[quote]We had our Maire round recently to look at the alterations we want to make to our barn. We also asked her about the new regs. We thought that perhaps it would be more sensible to save some of our mo...[/quote]

'In fact she seemed to be amazed that we even HAD a fosse!!'

Is there a law that you have to have adequate sanitation facilities??

We haven't any facilities apart from a port-a-pottie how long can we go on like this??

[Mikey]

What's the French for "mini sewage plant"?  mini station d'epuration

What's a mini-sewage plant anyway? I've heard it mentioned but, whilst I understand what a septic tank is, I haven't the foggiest about a mini-sewage plant.

the liquid that comes out of it is drinkable, not that i've tried it. one of the best things is you do not need a soakaway, what comes out can go directly into a ditch or river/stream as does ours. the liquid coming out  is so i've been told cleaner than the water in the stream. so you can say a mini sewage plant is a treatment plant.

What's the practical differences between a septic tank and a sewage plant? answered above.

Are those prices you're quoting right??? Even if the currency is euro, they seem way too low. Certainly the size of your place seems comparable to ours so I'm guessing that the plant wouldn't be drastically different in size. We even have a man with a digger next door who'd jump at the chance to do it free as it would get both of us out of a mess (and a smelly one at that!).

yes the price is correct, thats what we paid in 1999, our gites can take 20+ plus there is us 3

the unit needs to be plugged in for electrics to run the 90 watt motor.

if you look at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/smpi/station%20epuration.htm   the guy standing in the 4 unit station is the guy that supplied ours, Alain Pasco, the one at the top of the page looking down onto is ours

[Kiera]

After years of not being able to get a straight answer on the new regs from our Maire, we have just been sent a questionnaire asking very detailed questions about our fosse...so that someone from the EQS (Environnement Qualite Service) can see if there are any problems with sanitation in the village??!!... I wonder if that includes how far across the road the soap suds travel when there's more than one washing machine running at a time??

Seriously though, as far as I can make out there are approx 40 households in our village and the majority still run waste water into the road or ditches... The majority of the people in the village are retired and not well off, it will be interesting to see the reaction to this questionnaire and what the EQS will do next...

[Miki]

[quote]After years of not being able to get a straight answer on the new regs from our Maire, we have just been sent a questionnaire asking very detailed questions about our fosse...so that someone from the ...[/quote]

Demand a meeting at the salle de fetes, or wherever the meetings are held in your village and then you too can have a "bonding" session, cider and crepes and a jolly night out and also, like our folk, be none the wiser but the villagers will feel so much better for it all

I do love it when I read all the threats about what will happen if it is not done by 2005/6/7 and so on, load of old tosh. Who said "we shall not see it in our time" as I wonder if the person had all this in mind !!