Design flow

Definition

The gallons a day a park's septic system is permitted for, set by a state table or by metered use.

Why It Matters

Full hookup is the premium product and this is what the upgrade actually costs. In Minnesota a new system or an expansion takes its flow from a state table by site type, with no reduction for lower actual use. The numbers do the arithmetic for you: a campsite with a central bathhouse is fifty gallons a day and one with a sewer hookup is a hundred. So converting a dry site to full hookup doubles its design flow, and enough conversions move the whole park up a permit tier. Past five thousand gallons a day it is a midsized system. Past ten thousand on one dispersal area, or across the owner's dispersal areas within half a mile, it needs a state permit. A campground that existed in 2015 and opens 180 days a year or less may meter its flow around July 4 instead. And the state permit names a person, so it does not follow the land: the buyer asks for a modification and the seller has to consent to it.