3. A Look Back at Sealing

The clogging of infiltration systems refers to the gradual blockage of the pores in natural or reconstructed soil. This process can occur sequentially or simultaneously at different depths within the soil, following two patterns:

• it affects the entire volume of the massif;

• It occurs in the top few centimeters, at the surface where water seeps in.

In on-site wastewater treatment, it is primarily this latter type of mechanism—surface clogging—that affects the operation of wastewater treatment systems