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Household Waste Water Treatment
What do I do with these rankings?

Step 1: Begin by determining your overall household waste water risk ranking. Total the rankings for the areas you completed and divide by the number of areas you ranked:

*Carry your answer out to one decimal place.

Example:
40 ÷ 15 = 2.67
Use 2.7

Risk Ranking Description

This ranking gives you an idea of how your household wastewater risk practices, as a whole, might be affecting your drinking water. This ranking should serve only as a very general guide, not a precise diagnosis. Because it represents an averaging of many individual rankings, it can overlook any individual rankings (such as 1's or 2's) that should be of concern. (Step 2 will focus on individually ranked activities of concern.)

Enter your boxed household wastewater risk ranking in the appropriate place in the table on the front of worksheet #13. Later you will compare this risk ranking with other farmstead management rankings. Worksheet #13 will help you determine your farmstead's site conditions (soil type, soil depth, and bedrock characteristics), and worksheet #13 will show you how these site conditions affect your risk rankings.

Step 2: Evaluate your rankings for individual activities based on the following.

4's ­ Best: low-risk practices

3's ­ Provide reasonable groundwater protection: low- to moderate-risk practices

2's ­ Possibly inadequate protection: moderate- to high-risk practices

1's ­ Inadequate protection with relatively high groundwater contamination risk: high-risk practices

Find any activities that you identified as 1's and list them under High-Risk Activities in worksheet #13.

Step 3: Read Fact Sheet #6, Improving Household Wastewater Treatment, and give some thought to how you might modify your farmstead practices to better protect your drinking water. Refer to the Reference Organizations on page 6 for further information and assistance.