Temporal Variability in the Vertical Separation Distance of Septic System Drainfields Along the Southern Rhode Island Coast

Cox, Alissa H.; Surabian, Deborah; Loomis, George W.; Turenne, Jim D.; Amador, José A.

Temporal Variability in the Vertical Separation Distance of Septic System Drainfields Along the Southern Rhode Island Coast

2020

Cox, Alissa H. | Surabian, Deborah | Loomis, George W. | Turenne, Jim D. | Amador, José A.

Many coastal communities rely on individual onsite wastewater treatment (i.e., septic) systems to treat and disperse wastewater. Proper wastewater treatment in these systems depends on sufficient volume of unsaturated soil below the drainfield’s infiltrative surface. This is governed by the vertical separation distance—the distance between the groundwater table and the drainfield infiltrative surface—which is specified in (regulatory jurisdictions’ onsite wastewater system) regulations. Groundwater tables along the southern New England coast are rising due to sea-level rise, as well as changes in precipitation and water use patterns, which may compromise the functioning of existing septic systems. We used long-term shallow groundwater monitoring wells and ground-penetrating radar surveys of 10 drainfields in the southern Rhode Island coastal zone to determine whether septic system drainfields have adequate separation distance from the water table. Our results indicate that only 20% of tested systems are not impaired by elevated groundwater tables, while 40% of systems experience compromised separation distance at least 50% of the time. Surprisingly, 30% of systems in this study do not meet separation distance requirements at any time of the year. Neither age of system nor a system’s geographical relationship to a tidal water body was correlated with compromised separation distance. The observed compromised separation distances may be a result of inaccurate methods, specified by the regulations, to determine the height of the seasonal high water table. Our preliminary results suggest that enacting changes in the regulatory permitting process for coastal zone systems may help protect coastal drinking and surface water resources.

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