Overview

The town of Holden Beach has experienced tremendous growth in the last few years.  This growth has posed many challenges to dealing with the added impervious surface causing a strain on the stormwater system.  Downspouts from three homes were connected to previously unused septic tanks in an effort to determine the effectiveness of using septic tanks to capture roof top runoff.  Holes were punched in the bottom of two of the septic tanks to allow the water to infiltrate into the sand below.  A ¼ horse power sump pump was installed at Mr. Smith’s to allow the water to be harvested for irrigation.  Preliminary data indicated that when rain fall exceeded the capacity of the tank runoff flowed into the unused drain field allowing for the capacity to capture all of the roof top runoff even in larger events.  The town of Holden Beach will convert to municipal sewer by early 2006 giving the potential to capture roof top runoff from each home in a septic tank greatly reducing the amount of stormwater runoff and alleviating the strain on the storm water system.