A few months ago I responded to a reader’s question about the use and maintenance of individual sewage lagoons to treat septic tank effluent. I covered lagoon functions, construction and design, and offered some ideas about necessary maintenance. Since then I have looked back at some of the materials available through U.S. Environmental Protection Agency design manuals and some of the Consortium of Institutes for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment (CIDWT) materials developed in 2005. Both address needed maintenance for individual facultative lagoons.As a refresher, facultative lagoons are 5 to 8 feet deep and designed primarily on organic loading estimates using BOD5.
