Take Care of Your Septic Tank

Take Care of Your Septic Tank

Take Care of Your Septic Tank

CORTLAND — Loretta Ecklund, a septic system inspector with the Trumbull County Health Department, says she sees a lot of cases of rural homeowners failing to maintain their septic systems.

"A lot of people move out into the country and don't have a clue how to maintain their system," she told a large audience at the Agricultural Service Center at a recent seminar.

She and fellow inspector Richard Curl spend much of their workday looking at such systems, often resulting in orders to repair or replace the systems at a cost of around $7,000 to $12,000.

Nationally about 25 percent of homes use septic systems for waste removal instead of sewers, according to the National Small Flows Clearinghouse at West Virginia University.

Curl says one of the biggest reasons for premature failure of the systems is water overload from devices such as hot tubs, bath tubs and water softeners.

When homes are built, inspectors determine the type of system needed based on the number of bedrooms and the type of yard where the system will discharge water. They assume the home will get normal use.

But hot tubs and waterfall tubs use much more water than normal, so they can overwhelm a septic system, he said. Leaky faucets and toilets add to the problem.

Doing all of the laundry on one day also can hurt a system. An average top-load washer puts around 60 gallons of water into the system. Try spreading out the laundry to different parts of the week and buying a front-loading washer, which uses less water, Curl said.

The backwash cycle of a water softener can also put a lot of salt water into the system, and the salt from this process corrodes concrete septic tanks, he said. Curl recommended that homeowners not have that water enter the septic system but leave the home where stormwater leaves.

Water usage should be kept down because a standard septic tank holds about 1,000 gallons of water and solids. The tank works best when it holds the water and solids for 24 hours before the water flows to a leach field in the yard for absorption into the soil.

That 24-hour period separates the solids to the bottom of the tank from the water and begins the biological digestion process. If the process is rushed with too much water, undesirable parts of the effluent can get into the leach field, damaging it, Curl said.

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Posted on January 04, 2006 13:01 | Septic Tanks / Wells
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