Wet Tumbling--Can the dirty water go in septic systems?

[mongoose33]

I'm hoping and anticipating at some point I can build a house out of town limits where there is no water/sewer service. Well and septic system is what I want.

I clean brass using a rock tumbler w/ stainless steel pins, hot water, Dawn dishwashing liquid, and occasionally Lemi-Shine. Brass looks new coming out, inside and out. However, that dirt is transferred to the water and if you've never seen the water coming out, it's absolutely black with dirt.

Question: If I were to dump that water down a sink connected to a septic system, what's the consequence? What's exactly in that water? I have a sink in my garage and it goes down the drain into the sewer system, but what would it do to the septic system? Or am I potentially putting poisons into the leaching system which eventually works into the groundwater?

There are, I suppose, ways around this. I could collect the dirty water and store it in a barrel, evaporate it away in the summer. There are other ways.

Anyway, what's in that dirty water? If it's just carbon, no big deal. If there is a lot of other stuff....

 

[LiveLife]

Wet Tumbling ... what's in that dirty water?

Everything that are not left on the brass. If you shoot lead/FMJ loads, likely lead dust from exposed lead bullet base.

Many posted they line flat pans/trays with plastic and evaporate the dirty water. Once the water is evaporated, the remaining solids are pulled along with plastic and discarded in landfills.

I have septic for my house and plan to evaporate dirty water from wet tumbling.

 

[KansasSasquatch]

Unless you exclusively use non-toxic primers, there's going to be lead in that water/solution.

Evaporating in a barrel seems like a good idea, but that's going to add to your local mosquito population being stagnant like that. Unless the chemicals in it keep the mosquitoes out of it.

 

[mongoose33]

Evaporating in a barrel seems like a good idea, but that's going to add to your local mosquito population being stagnant like that. Unless the chemicals in it keep the mosquitoes out of it.

I would do it like bds noted above using evaporation pans. I'd just store it in a barrel in the meantime. And with how dirty that water is, I just DARE mosquitoes to try to breed in it. It wouldn't be exposed anyway.

I end up having about 48-60 ounces of water in the tumbler; probably could get by with less. I probably do....oh, 10 or 12 iterations during the winter, so I'm not going to have a ton of water to have to store. Maybe 20 gallons, w/ the rinse water.

 

[homatok]

If it was me, I would drill the well uphill from the septic system, flush the polishing residue and forget about it. There really is no difference between flushing it into a septic tank or dumping it into the public sewer system in terms of toxicity!

 

[GLOOB]

If it were me, I would tumble without any acid - just a little detergent. Then after the water settles, you can pour out 95% percent of it. Most all of the bad stuff will settle on the bottom.

If you are using citric acid or such, you are putting copper oxides and perhaps some zinc and lead oxides into solution, depending on the pH you reach.

If you try to add baking soda or something, after the fact, the metal ions will precipitate back out, but the copper salts will form a nasty, hydrophilic goo that won't settle to the bottom, and you're back to waiting for the whole bucket to evaporate, again.

 

[TexasDon]

Here is my 2¢

You never want to put anything into a septic system that will kill the natural bacteria that is formed and needed to do it's job in there.
One of mine is setup to only get the toilet waters in the first tank, everything else goes into the second one.
The other little older system has everything going into the first tank, that one has given me more trouble than the other.

TxD

 

[Rule3]

It's good to be thinking "green" mainly so you do not have lead and other chemicals leach into your drinking water.

The evaporation in a flat pan would be you best bet, covered with a screen. Animals will not usually drink polluted water but just to be safe.

If skeeters are a issue a few drops of oil will float on the surface and kill the larvae.

Solids like dirty media usually go into a landfill which is lined or an incinerator and burned to the point of non emission with all the scrubbers and filters on the stacks they have today.

To be honest the small "footprint" that you would/will make is nothing compared to industry and all the big time polluters. But every little bit we can avoid does help.

I live on a major river that dumps billions of gallons of water from Lake O into the Gulf. Turns the clear blue waters dark brown with sfrom the farming (sugar cane) The phosphates produce algae blooms and major fish kills occur. But the Govt worries about the homeowner fertilizing their lawn.

 

[jmorris]

Where I live aerobic septic systems have to be installed now. They spray water from the tank on the lawn, so wouldn't be any different than dumping it on the lawn.

The system at our farm only tanks toilet water, sinks, tub and washer (grey water) just dump on the ground.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Yeah, like mentioned above, you really don't want to take a chance the lead will find it's way into your well and drinking water. If that happens your land is useless and you won't be effecting only your water...

 

[OilyPablo]

Just curious - what is the Pb ppm of the first tumble water?

 

[Toprudder]

Just curious - what is the Pb ppm of the first tumble water?

That is a very good question!

 

[Rule3]

If lead is a heavy metal then wouldn't it settle to the bottom sludge(and cling or be absorbed) of a septic tank and then get cleaned out ever few years.

 

[OilyPablo]

Depends if the lead is in solution or not.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

If lead is a heavy metal then wouldn't it settle to the bottom sludge(and cling or be absorbed) of a septic tank and then get cleaned out ever few years.

Much of the contents of a septic tank will leach into the ground but I don't know if the lead will. In reality lead is only dangerous if you inhale or ingest it. If it gets into the ground water you will be ingesting it.

Mind you, I'm not a scientist or an expert so this is all a guess on my part BUT, if there is a chance why take the chance?

 

[jmorris]

Again, depends on the septic system.

http://www.egsd.com/stypes.html

http://www.watersheds.org/earth/septicsystem.htm

For me, it doesn't matter if it is lead or crap, I don't want either in water I use in the house.

 

[mongoose33]

Just curious - what is the Pb ppm of the first tumble water?

I have a chemist friend who's agreed to test the water for me; won't probably happen until March (he has to set up a piece of equipment he only uses a couple times a year).

The idea is to answer what's in there; hopefully I'll have answers to questions like the lead content in PPM.

 

[P51D]

Now this will be interesting. Kudos to you on this effort. Given your interests and understandable concerns on the subject, I'll bet you and your chemist friend will think of these things (but I'll say them anyway). Please keep good records on type and number of cases and primers, de-primed or not, type powder, amount of water and additives in the tumbler, time tumbled, temp range, etc.. With him being a chemist, and you a reloader, your team should know the variables to record. Also betting you may get a few more suggestions

But thanks for doing this. P51D

 

[Toprudder]

I have a chemist friend who's agreed to test the water for me.

Awesome!

 

[OilyPablo]

Wow thanks. Please post in this thread so we followers get notified.

 

[LiveLife]

I have a chemist friend who's agreed to test the water for me; won't probably happen until March.

The idea is to answer what's in there; hopefully I'll have answers to questions like the lead content in PPM.

Awesome! Look forward to the report.

For those who want to follow the thread, you can go to Thread Tools on the menu bar and select Subscribe to this Thread and you'll be notified when the thread is updated.

 

[blarby]

If it was me, I would drill the well uphill from the septic system, flush the polishing residue and forget about it. There really is no difference between flushing it into a septic tank or dumping it into the public sewer system in terms of toxicity!

If you drilled your well downroute of your septic, lead would be the very least of your concerns

FWIW, you can install grey-water filters for runoff into septic systems. Strongly recommended for utility sinks, etc.


Any strong acids ( lemi-shine ) or strong bases ( bleach, scouring powder ) are REALLY bad for septic.

I don't know that lead is particularly bad for any of the bacteria types in a septic system, but I'm certainly not concerned about short-term memory loss in my anerobic bacteria