Sweet Pea Sewer & Septic

The Scoop on Poop - #12
By Susan Bashor


As I sit on the sofa holding the barf bowl for my lovely daughter (well, she’s had lovelier moments), I am reminded that sickness sucks. Imagine the life of a doctor. All day long, one patient after another, handing out the verdict... flu, ear infection, strep throat, whiplash, obesity, sprained ankle, fractured skull, you’re pregnant, no pulse... Uck, what a job. When I think of it, it’s not too dissimilar from what we at Sweet Pea are called upon to do many times each day, and that is, to assess the health of your homes’ sewer or septic systems. (Doctors forgive me, here we go). Although extra schooling was not mandatory, our team boasts a collective 40+ years of sewer and drain cleaning experience. That’s a lot of crap when you think about it and - quite a lot of expertise!

What have we learned over all that time? First of all, not to always listen to the customers opinion as to what’s wrong with his plumbing. Much like a doctor, we begin by gathering up all the symptoms. After hearing your description of the illness, we next take steps to get to the bottom of the matter ourselves. This may mean a little sniffing and flushing as we begin to track down the source of the plug. What’s the assessment? A large root ball? A contaminated septic tank due to a poor diet and lack of exercise? The toilet has eaten something it shouldn’t, like a toothbrush? Maybe the pipes in the house have gotten old and begun to decay and we’ve got broken sewer lines? All in a day’s work!

You can be watching for symptoms too! Slow drains, odors, gurgling toilets and your kids smelling like sewage when they come in from playing in the backyard are all valid symptoms of an impending problem. As a reminder, healthy septic systems require you to pick up the telephone on a regular basis (depending on how many bodies in your home are using said system) to arrange to have the septic tank cleaned out. Has it been too long? One way we can always tell if it’s been “too long” since your last cleaning is if you can’t remember where the lid to the tank is - this is a dead giveaway - NEGLECT!!

As a reminder to our septic customers:
‒ Cleaning your septic tank regularly is cheaper for most families than the annual fee for living on the city sewer system.
‒ 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 too 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.
Until next time Happy Flushing and remember... It’s not glamourous but someone has to tell you! Mention key words “poop scoop” and receive a $15.00 off your next septic tank cleaning. Offer good thru October 31, 2002 and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers or coupons because we can’t afford it...sorry.