Flush & Forget
By Jim Palmer Jr.

One of the most unpleasant tasks of a homeowner who lives in a rural setting is the ongoing maintenance issues related to their septic system. The tendency for most is to flush and forget! This is the time of year to be vigilant in terms of maintenance for your “mini-sewage-treatment-plant” since you really don’t want to be calling Roto Rooter on Thanksgiving or Christmas day when you have a bunch of family and friends at the house. Your neglected septic system may rebel when the sudden surge of use (by your guests) stretches the limits of its performance ability.

Regular maintenance of septic systems is really the exception, not the rule, since most people really do forget about it. Make plans now to call a reliable septic pump service and get on a regular schedule for maintenance. What that schedule looks like depends on the system and its use, but generally for most systems, a pump schedule of every 2-3 years should suffice.

In a recent case, during the selling process of a vacant home, the septic system was located only after great effort by a locating service since “as-built” drawings on record at the county only served to indicate it’s general location and efforts to probe for the tank from the surface became exasperating because the tank was buried too deep. Once the tank was located by sonar equipment, it was found to be approx. 3 feet underground and had no risers.  It’s no wonder the system had never been pumped previous to the sale! It would have been a mammoth effort for the home owner who would just as soon not hassle with it. The investment of a couple of risers with screw-on lids would certainly make that task easier in the future. (A riser is a length of plastic culvert that allows access to the septic lid without digging).

Prior to any sale (and on a regular maintenance schedule) septic systems should be pumped and inspected. When a system has not been used recently, buyers should consider requesting a purge test, which consists of introducing water into the system (approx. 4 gpm) for a couple of hours to determine whether the system is functioning properly. If the drain field does not readily accept the fluid, that means the system has failed or is failing and probably requires a repair or replacement of the drain field.