[Jewelry making - Article 00070] - Re: [Orchid] Septic systems

[Jess4203]

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LauraJo:

    To my small mind there are two important issues here.  The first is
    that you wouldn't want to put a large amount of any chemical into
    your system which would disrupt the chemical process of
    decomposition.  The most obvious issue here would be altering the pH
    drastically.  I doubt you are going to put that much stuff into the
    system at one time that you are going to do this.  However, it
    wouldn't be a bad idea to neutralize acids with baking soda and bases
    with vinegar before throwing them down the drain. 

    The second issue is that anything you put in the tank is going to end
    up in your soil and water table.  Here again dilution is your friend,
    but you level of dilution is relatively small, so that toxic
    chemicals could still be toxic.  If you learn a little elementary
    chemistry, you can probably make some good educated guesses as 
to
    what would be something to pack up and take to the toxic waste 
dump. 
    Heavy metals such as lead and cadmium are obvious choices. 
    Insecticides and similar organic compounds (although I can't think of
    many of these used in jewelrymaking right off) don't decompose easily
    and are toxic in small amounts, so I wouldn't want to be adding them
    to the water table even if I wasn't growing a garden over the septic
    tank.  Organic solvents like benzene, toluene, acetone, etc., are in
    this class.  Liver of sulfur is potassium sulfide, and, if I remember
    my organic gardening, both potassium and sulfur are components of the
    soil, so a little of them might not really be of any harm.  If you do
    a lot of etching or plating, you might want to check with the
    manufacturer or find an MSDS before disposing of a lot of these
    liquids in your septic tank.  A little common sense chemistry, an
    inquiry to the local water authorities, an environmental handbook or
    two and you should be set to go.  Organic solvents and heavy metals
    are likely to be your main villains.  Acids and bases are mostly of
    common chemicals in the soil anyway and will be neutralized either
    before or after they reach the tank. 

HTH,
Roy 

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