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Flow Calculations for Household Effluent Disposal in Elevated Sand Mounds¹

ABSTRACT

Elevated sand mound disposal systems that are used in Pennsylvania for disposal of household effluents are frequently malfunctioning. A method of evaluating the ability of a soil to transmit effluent from an elevated sand mound to a ground-water system was developed by separating the effluent flow into horizontal and vertical components. In all cases, it was assumed that effluent was not limited by infiltration at the sand-soil surface or by the ability of the groundwater system to accept the effluent. Horizontal flow was calculated using Darcy's law written in cylindrical coordinates. Vertical flow was calculated assuming that a single, slowly permeable layer of known thickness limited flow. It was concluded that lateral flow alone cannot remove household effluents fast enough for the typical Pennsylvania design. On the other hand, the vertical-flow component alone can account for the design flow when the flow-limiting layer is not too thick.

Key Words: absorption • fragipan • surface discharge • hydraulic conductivity

¹ Paper no. 6013 of the Journal Series of the Pennsylvania Agric. Exp. Stn. Supported by funds provided by the Off. of Water Res. and Technol. (B-98-PA), U.S. Dep. of the Interior, Washington, D.C., as authorized by the Water Res. and Dev. Act of 1978, through matching grant agreement no. 14-34-0001-7129. Authorized for publication 26 June 1980.

² Former Graduate Research Assistant, now Environmental Scientist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ann Arbor, MI 48105; and Associte Professor of Soil Physics and Professor of Soil Genesis and Morphology, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA 16802, respectively.

Received for publication July 11, 1980.