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Thread: Well water for film & print

  1. #11

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    Jun 2010
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    Calgary, Canada
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    Re: Well water for film & print

    With the amount of work I'll be doing there won't be much for chemicals going into the septic system.

    I did some more googling and it sounds exactly like you guys said, to use distilled water through a couple parts of the process and that's not a huge issue.

    Thanks for the advice everyone. It looks like I'll be going ahead and rounding up darkroom stuff. This is getting exciting, I haven't been in a dark room since I finished my BFA 2 years ago!


  2. #12

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    Sep 2007
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    Flower Mound, Tx
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    Re: Well water for film & print

    I would advise designing a simple rainwater harvesting system. You will then have a good volume of very soft water for any process. I am in my 30th year of doing just that. The only requirement for using rainwater to process film etc, is to run it through a 1 micron filter and change the filter every 2 years or so. (there are lots of disolved solids in rainwater).

    Just catch it off your roof. You will get about 0.6 gallons of water from each square foot of catchment in a 1 inch rain.

  3. #13

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    May 2005
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    Olympia, Washington
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    Re: Well water for film & print

    You might want to check out what Kodak says about photo chemicals (especially fixer and selenium toner) going into the septic system. They do NOT recommend doing this. It is more than just the smooth operation of the septic system...that might only cost a few hundred dollars for extra pumping. There is the risk of fines for violating local codes. But the risk that is small but important is screwing up the aquifer that you and your neighbors are drinking from. It is amazing how often we hear news about a community with bad drinking water due to their own carelessness and now they are demanding that taxpayers bail them out. Out of sight-out of mind just doesn't cut it any more. I would strongly urge everyone on a septic system to avoid dumping the worst stuff down the drain--that is fixer and selenium (and I don't know what from the array of color processing chemicals).

  4. #14

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    Apr 2008
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    Jamul, CA
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    Re: Well water for film & print

    I live on a 40 acre ranch with 6 wells. All of the water entering the house is triple filtered. I've never had any ill effects from either mixing chemicals or washing film and prints with this setup. None of the wash water or chemicals go into the septic system. They go into a gray water holding tank used for watering the lawns and trees.

  5. #15

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    Re: Well water for film & print

    Quote Originally Posted by Wade D View Post
    I live on a 40 acre ranch with 6 wells. All of the water entering the house is triple filtered. I've never had any ill effects from either mixing chemicals or washing film and prints with this setup. None of the wash water or chemicals go into the septic system. They go into a gray water holding tank used for watering the lawns and trees.
    What about eutrophication?

  6. #16
    bob carnie's Avatar
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    Jan 2004
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    Toronto, Ontario,
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    Re: Well water for film & print

    I plan to move to a location in a few years where I will probably be on septic system.
    My use will be beyond hobby but not as heavy as my operation here in Toronto.

    I am curious on any water filtration systems currently available that would be able to work on basically the wash water, dev and stop. For the fix I will always use a silver recovery service.

    For arguments sake lets say price is no object, what technology's would some here reccomend looking at that would work on the water before releasing to the septic.

  7. #17

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    Re: Well water for film & print

    My last darkroom was on a septic system, we had a new setic system installed while I was living at the house (27 years). This was due to having a cess pool originally that failed. It was also before Massachusetts made some very strict laws concerning septic systems. I had a long discussion with the waste water management guy in the town about darkrooms. His feeling that for a single professional level photographer, the most dangerous thing to the septic system was overwhelming it with water ie don't run water all the time you are processing. Silver from a personal darkroom is a nonissue, it is commercial labs running hundreds and thousands of prints/film that cause a problem. You can always use a silver recovery system, but you won't get much silver. Selenium is another question but again what is the concentration and the amount you use.
    So I started to process film with 3 water changes after fixing film in water for 30 sec., use a fixer remover, Sprint and Kodak are the best, the 7 + water changes, photoflo hang to dry. With prints I had an Oriental compartment washer and again used fixer remover. The other advantage here is you can get all the chemicals to the same temperature.
    Another source of near distilled water is dehumidifiers, necessary in my Vermont basement.

    Tom

  8. #18
    Scott Walker's Avatar
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    Okotoks (rural), Alberta, Canada
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    Re: Well water for film & print

    Hi Sean,

    I live on a farm south of Calgary near Okotoks and have the same issues with the water. I installed a Home Depot inline water filter to get rid of what it can. I did development tests of course, and they matched my tests from when I lived in the City of Calgary so the weird water doesn’t seem to mess with development. As far as affecting the archival quality of film and prints.....who knows......so its better safe than sorry and distilled water final rinse/soak it is.

    I replaced my entire septic system so I have enquired about dumping chemicals and larger than normal amounts of water through it, the response was that the photo chemicals would have no adverse affect on the system itself at the scale that I would be using it and that my system was way overbuilt so the extra water is not a problem. I assume that if the system is small for the size of the house and number of people using it you could saturate the field and cause issues.

    Something that you should be aware of is that up until just recently in this part of the world the property owner could get a permit to put in a septic system which circumvented soil percolation tests, common sense, etc. so there are lots of septic systems that are undersized, built incorrectly, discharging into soil that will flush easily into streams and aquifers and a variety of other issues.

  9. #19

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    Mar 2004
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    Re: Well water for film & print

    Given the amount of discussion in this thread regarding septic systems, I would like to point out that there are two criteria involved in proper design and operation.

    The commonly understood one is that the leach field has to be able to dispose of the effluent at least as fast as liquids are introduced to the system; this is the point of percolation tests.

    Less widely recognized is that the effectiveness of the system is directly related to the "residence time", the average amount of time that a portion of material entering the tank spends there being microbially degraded before being released to the leach field. This the basis for choosing the tank capacity, usually as a function of the number of bedrooms (on the theory that the amount of water will be proportional to the number of people in the house). What this has to do with photography is twofold. First, if your system is effectively oversized (tank is large compared to the amount of water usage, perhaps because the kids have grown up and left home) then even a certain amount of interference by photo chemicals is likely to be inconsequential, and the converse is also true. Second, minimizing the amount of water going into the tank is always good strategy, because this increases the residence time for any given tank capacity, thereby allowing more time for microbial degradation. After the first rinse, the amount of chemicals in wash water is negligible, so running it out onto the ground is actually better than putting it through the septic tank, from an aquifer-safety standpoint.

  10. #20

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    Re: Well water for film & print

    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    What about eutrophication?
    The amount of chemicals is quite low and does not seep into the ground water with any concentration that would cause eutrophication or anoxia.

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