If your home is not connected to the city sewer system, then you must face the fact that you are the proud owner of an individual septic treatment plant (kind of like a small individual pan pizza). Yes, it’s right there in your back yard.
Just as you responsibly take care of changing the oil in your car so as not to blow a motor, so to there is a minimal amount of maintenance owed to your septic system. If maintenance is taken care of a timely and regular manner, one will almost certainly prevent a truly costly system overhaul. I’m speaking of (and have been a witness to) the kind of explosion that catches all concerned by surprise and is destined to occur only when your mother-in-law flushes the toilet in the guest bedroom or when you have a yard full of wedding guests and one of them steps in ...
Should I be even more clear...
1) Cleaning your septic tank regularly is cheaper for most families than the annual fee for living on the city sewer system.
2) Poop does not disappear. It only condenses into a fine material called “sludge” and stays inside the septic tank until:
a) Sweet Pea vacuums it out and carries it away or,
b) the tank fills up and over, thus producing a back up in your home or,
c) unbeknownst to you and over the course of time, sludge leaves the full septic tank in the opposite direction - toward your drainage system. This is a special place where only greywater is supposed to travel as it makes it’s way back through sand and gravel and soil and finally to groundwater. Let’s not think about that one to hard. (Got milk?) Sludge in this area of your system can hide for years and slowly plug your drainfield and eventually it’s ability to absorb greywater at all. One fine day you’ll get a BIG SURPRISE, either in your yard or in your home but you’ll know it when you see it (or smell it, or touch it). At this late date and due to denial, penny pinching, bull headedness or just plain failure to listen to my advise, you’ve probably incurred a large expense. It is much cheaper to simply have the septic tank cleaned out regularly.
So, that’s it for the first Scoop on Poop. There’s so much more for you to learn. In my next column we’ll talk about the do’s and don’t of flushing, we’ll learn all about what plugs lines and also about proper household habits (only the ones pertaining to septic systems, don’t panic). Okay, I’ll fill you in on the picture too.
Until next time Happy Flushing and remember... It’s not glamourous but someone has to tell you!