Designing a discharging system

A discharging system treats the wastewater and releases the treated water into a waterway, such as a stream or a pond. In the United States, discharging systems are often not allowed unless they are old enough to be grandfathered in, or are permitted by the environmental agency. An onsite system is often required to be considered first.

This page takes you through drawing one with the septic tools, in the order the wastewater flows. The tools are under Tools > Septic design.

In short:

1. Draw the house with Building, and set its bedrooms or flow.
2. Draw the Sewer Main from the house to where the first tank goes.
3. Add the tanks and the treatment unit with Treatment train.
4. Mark the discharge point with Elevation, type Discharge Point.
5. Join the last tank to the discharge point with a Distribution Main or a Force Main.
6. Check the design in Details.

Let Smart design draw it

Smart design places each of these parts for you, one step at a time, discharge point included. See A discharging system.

The house and the sewer main

1. Draw the house with Building, and set its bedrooms or flow. Every size in the design comes from this flow. See Building with Flow.
2. With Pipes > Sewer Main, start at the house, where the sewer leaves it, and end where the first tank goes. See Sewer main.

The tanks

A discharging system treats the water to a high standard, so it often needs a septic tank, a treatment unit and a dose tank with its pump and controls. Add them with Treatment train, or one at a time with Tank. See Tank tools and Aerobic treatment units.

The discharge point

1. Click Discharge point in the Site group, and click the map where the water is discharged.
2. Check the Outlet elevation, pick what it discharges into, then click Save Elevation.

See Discharge point. Details reads the discharge point for the hydraulic profile. It shows on the map as a round blue marker.

If the agency asks for the coordinates of the discharge point, right-click its marker and choose Copy coordinates (latitude, longitude). See Copy coordinates and zoom.

The pipe to the discharge point

Join the last tank to the discharge point: a Distribution Main for gravity flow, or a Force Main from the pump. See Pipe tools.

Check and share the design

• Open Details to check the sizes, the elevations and the pump, and to make the report PDF. See Details and the report PDF.
• Click Print for a one-page site plan. See Print a site plan.
• Share the map with the health department or the installer. See Map sharing.