The most common form of farmstead on-site wastewater treatment is a septic tank system. A properly designed, installed, and maintained septic tank system minimizes the impact of that system on groundwater and surface water. State and local regulations specify how wastewater systems must be designed, installed, and maintained. Act 402 of 1977 regulates Arkansas Department of sewage systems, and it's administered by the Health.
Bacteria partially decompose and liquefy the solids.
The absorption field is usually a series of parallel trenches that contain perforated distribution pipes surrounded by gravel. The effluent leaks out through holes in the pipe, then down through the gravel and into the soil. Back To Top Figures 1-2 below illustrate this process. If septic tank effluent flows into an area with a shallow water table, it might not be adequately purified before entering groundwater. A similar problem can happen where the soil is too thin over rock to treat the septic tank effluent well.