The SPANC man cometh

[Headers]

We have received a letter notifying us of a compulsory inspection by a SPANC appointed 3rd party.
We had our old system replaced 2 years ago so it seems a bit early to have it inspected. Apparently they’re doing all the non connected properties in the commune.
Very interesting in their paperwork which I found on-line there is a question about water in the fosse and mosquitos. It’s a real problem around here as several houses use the public ditches for their outflow and the ditches are badly maintained.
We don’t even have a public fosse but are fortunate to have enough land for the outflow to go down the property. SPANC were happy with that 2 years ago so it will be very interesting to see if they have changed their minds.

[Blaze]

We had a fosse system which pumped the water through a filtration system (a large hump) and like you, we had plenty of land and the filtered water went into a ditch.
The problem with mozzies is standing water and uncleared ditches will be a haven for them. That said, even if the ditches were cleared, the water would probably remain standing until ot could drain away naturally.

[Hotrodder]

We had the inspection years ago and it was determined to be non-compliant. There was an old outside loo but no sign of a fosse anywhere but as it was only a stone's throw from the roadside ditch I had my suspicions. Close ditch inspection turned up no nasty smells or damp patches so remains a mystery how it worked. A compliant installation back then was a mere €7000+ so I displayed my best "French Shrug" and put the subject on the back burner. Eventually I saved enough to buy a tank and spent 6 weeks burying it with only a garden fork and shovel. It gets emptied three times a year because I couldn't face digging a soakaway in my field, 100 metres uphill from the tank. I have since learned to enhance my French Shrug by pulling out both trowser pockets to show they are empty.