Cesspit

[1] A cesspit can be used for the temporary collection and storage of feces, excreta, or fecal sludge as part of an on-site sanitation system and has some similarities with septic tanks or with soak pits.

In British English, historically, a cesspit was just a hole dug into the ground, often lined with bricks or stones with gaps between them to collect household sewage and wastewater.

A cesspool (in British English) is watertight tank (usually made from plastic or concrete) that is located underground to store sewage and wastewater until it can be removed by a specialist contractor.

Most residential waste cesspools in use in the US today are rudimentary septic systems, consisting of a concrete-capped pit lined with concrete masonry units (cinder blocks) laid on their sides with perforated drain field piping (weeping tile) extending outward below the level of the intake connection.

The waste cesspool is vulnerable to overloading or flooding by heavy rains or snow melt because it is not enclosed and sealed like conventional septic tank systems.

Modern environmental regulations either discourage or ban the use of cesspools, and instead connections to municipal sewage systems or septic tanks are encouraged or required.

In many countries, planning and development regulations for the protection of the watershed prevent home-owners who live close to rivers and environmentally sensitive areas from installing a septic system, requiring a holding tank instead.

In areas that have a higher than usual water table or fail a percolation test, an above-ground drain field waste disposal system may be installed instead.

Pollution of water supplies by sewage as well as dumping of industrial waste accounted in large measures for the public health records and high mortality rates of the period.

[citation needed] [4] Cesspits were introduced to Europe in the 16th century, at a time when urban populations were growing at a faster rate than in the past.

The added burden of waste volume began overloading urban street gutters, where chamber pots were emptied each day.

[7][failed verification] Cesspool collapses have occurred in the area, for example on December 8, 2009, when two workers in a decommissioned cesspit were trapped, requiring a two-hour rescue mission.

[10] On June 1, 2011, two teenagers, from the Suffolk County neighborhood of Farmingville, drowned after becoming overwhelmed by fumes and trapped in a backyard cesspool measuring 16 feet (4.9 m) deep.