Water softener discharge to existing sump pump/dry well setup

[PDBS]

Long time lurker, didn't realize how long it's been since I posted here.

We've had a water softener for a long time and have the drain for the brine connected to our septic system. While this hasn't caused any issues with our septic system (that we get pumped regularly), it is a big no-no and we would not pass a Title 5 inspection if we decided to sell our house at some point.

I've meant to address this for a while, but have obviously been dragging my feet. We're about to update our water conditioning equipment, so I figure it's time to come up with a better solution.

We do have a sump pump right next to the softener that hasn't run since we had floods in 2010, so I was hoping to tap into the existing 1.5" PVC and send the brine out to the dry well I put in last year.

My question is, how do I tap in to the existing PVC? There's never any water in the pipe since the sump pump rarely runs, so something like a p-trap doesn't seem appropriate. I do have an air gap fitting, but don't know if this is as simple as putting a PVC tee in the horizontal run and just sticking the air gap fitting I have into a vertical piece of PVC?

Any thoughts on how best to approach this? I do know my neighbor simply has the brine pumped on top of the gravel under their deck, so this seems a bit more elegant than something like that.

 

[Reach4]

If using the drain from sump, you could drain into the sump. Let the sump pump pump it out. That is not uncommon. But without ground water to dilute the brine, it might be hard on the pump.

Otherwise, you could put a stand pipe up on the next floor, high enough that the sump pump pumping would not pump that high. Then drain the softener into that....

Combining with check valves could work, and I think that is what you had in mind. But you would need to face the deal that if the sump pump is pressurizing the line while the softener is draining, water could come out of your planed air gap.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[PDBS]

If using the drain from sump, you could drain into the sump. Let the sump pump pump it out. That is not uncommon. But without ground water to dilute the brine, it might be hard on the pump.

Otherwise, you could put a stand pipe up on the next floor, high enough that the sump pump pumping would not pump that high. Then drain the softener into that....

Combining with check valves could work, and I think that is what you had in mind. But you would need to face the deal that if the sump pump is pressurizing the line while the softener is draining, water could come out of your planed air gap.

Yes, I was hoping to avoid corroding the sump pump with the brine. The only time the pump runs now is when I put water in there myself, like when I have the dehumidifier hose in the sump pit or drain my pressure tank.

I was hoping these was a creative way the softener waste could exist with the sump pump. The sump pump ran for 2 weeks straight when we had floods in 2010 and hasn't really been needed since, but it could have been messy business if the softener regenerated while that was happening.

I really need to come up with something, this is stressing me out and I need to finally pull the trigger and get my water conditioning equipment updated.

 

[Reach4]

Did you follow the idea of teeing off the path to the dry well to a standpipe on the first floor? The point would be to make sure it is high enough that the softener drainage and sump pump could never produce enough flow to drive water out of the standpipe. I am not a pro.

 

[PDBS]

Did you follow the idea of teeing off the path to the dry well to a standpipe on the first floor? The point would be to make sure it is high enough that the softener drainage and sump pump could never produce enough flow to drive water out of the standpipe. I am not a pro.

Unfortunately, I don't think something like that would be acceptable to Mrs. PDBS. Anything that doesn't look good will be a problem.

A check valve on a piece of vertical pipe tee'd off the sump pump output line seems like it would be OK as long as the softener discharge and sump pump weren't running at the same time. That would have been fine for the past 14 years, but if we had another 100 year storm and the sump pump ran for 2 weeks straight I'd have to temporarily relocate the softener discharge hose elsewhere until the groundwater settled back down.

To put it in perspective, we had record rainfall in March 2010 and we literally had a stream running through our back yard. The sump pump ran for 2 weeks and that's the only time we've needed it in 27 years living here.

I was hoping that someone had a clever solution to get all of this tied together that wouldn't have occurred to me as a non-plumber.