11-03-2014, 06:54 PM
Oh yes... the evil cesspool argument. This argument is based on the millions of cesspools typically dug into dirt where they only offered an environment of no oxygen and could only support anaerobic bacteria to do the job of breaking down the solid biological wastes left for them to survive upon. Which anaerobic bacteria cannot keep up with the waste load and eventually the hole or septic tank need to be pumped out. Below their leach lines they wold also clog up with sludge and even the anaerobic septic systems will fill wth sludge over time under the leach lines because they are substandard systems, period.
I will say this one more time. We do not have dirt here in most areas of Puna... we have ventilated rock.
A cesspool here naturally offers what has to be specially designed and made to aerate septic systems placed in dirt.
Our cesspools here offer natural oxygenated ventilation through the rock to support vigorously healthy aerobic bacteria. Not even the best of aerobic in ground septic systems offer a more oxygen enriched environment than what can be simply created by a covered hole here in our lava. Not even close!
The reason you find little to no waste in a cesspool here is not because it washes to the ocean but because the rich aerobic bacteria here decompose the material very rapidly here and as some have already noted, insect feed on the smaller insect and microbes that eat the waste.
A cesspool here in the rock is by far a much more effective system than the best in ground septic systems. Hands down! Why? Because it is a natural biological system that incorporates not only aerobic bacteria but also several variety of larger micro organisms as well as insects. You cannot improve on what nature has already mastered and at minimum you're more likely to screw it up.
The EPA would be wise to investigate what makes lava rock cesspools so effective here. There's a lot to learn in them there holes here. If any modifications are to be made in a lava rock cesspool it would be to add a depression of sand in the bottom and nothing more.
I will say this one more time. We do not have dirt here in most areas of Puna... we have ventilated rock.
A cesspool here naturally offers what has to be specially designed and made to aerate septic systems placed in dirt.
Our cesspools here offer natural oxygenated ventilation through the rock to support vigorously healthy aerobic bacteria. Not even the best of aerobic in ground septic systems offer a more oxygen enriched environment than what can be simply created by a covered hole here in our lava. Not even close!
The reason you find little to no waste in a cesspool here is not because it washes to the ocean but because the rich aerobic bacteria here decompose the material very rapidly here and as some have already noted, insect feed on the smaller insect and microbes that eat the waste.
A cesspool here in the rock is by far a much more effective system than the best in ground septic systems. Hands down! Why? Because it is a natural biological system that incorporates not only aerobic bacteria but also several variety of larger micro organisms as well as insects. You cannot improve on what nature has already mastered and at minimum you're more likely to screw it up.
The EPA would be wise to investigate what makes lava rock cesspools so effective here. There's a lot to learn in them there holes here. If any modifications are to be made in a lava rock cesspool it would be to add a depression of sand in the bottom and nothing more.