Overly Simplified Septic Tank Lesson- part 2

Milk is bad for your septic tank?

After reading my post yesterday, I was disgusted with myself.   I am the wife of the premier wastewater expert in the western hemisphere, and all I can say is:  Milk is bad for your septic tank?

Determined to redeem myself, I asked my wastewater-dispensing hero to again explain BOD to me.  This accomplished two things: 1) it made me feel smarter, 2) it made my husband feel worshipped.  Good things happen for me when my man feels worshipped by me.

So hold on to your seats, because I know ya’ll are dying to understand how your septic system works and for the next 17.3 seconds, I may actually remember bits and pieces of it.

BOD stands for Biochemical Oxygen Demand.  I still think Odiferous worked well in there, but……anyway, the BOD of something is the amount of oxygen it uses in 5 days to decompose.  According to Sid, there is an interesting bit of history to why the great wastewater scientists use 5 days as their standard.  The British, who were among the first to study the decomposition of wastes, wanted to know what happened to waste materials as they flowed through the streets of London to the Thames River.  Five days is how long it took the sewage to reach the Thames River.  I love it when Sid comes up with this stuff.

Sid says the BOD of milk is 100,000 mg per liter.  Did I menton that I love it when he comes up with this stuff?  To put this into perspective, the average dirty water sample inside a septic system has a BOD of 350 mg/lt.  So when the beautiful, intelligent (but wastewater-illiterate) housewife, like myself pours sour milk down the sink, she is unwittingly making the nasty, but necessary, bacteria in her septic system work harder to decompose the sewage stew.

And that is why my generous husband will build me a castle with a dream kitchen of my design, but will not be installing a garbage disposal for the convenience of his fair maid.  Instead, he has supplied me with two sturdy boys to carry out my slop.