The school bus arrived home early that day. Your children ran straight from the bus down to the yard. The smile faded from your lips when your children screamed in disgust. To your horror, the well-manicured lawn was flooded with foul sewage! You immediately call your children to the side of the house to hose their feet. They removed their shoes and socks and went inside to shower. You were so upset that your blood pressure shot up. Over a cup of hot jasmine-lavender tea, you calmed down and thought of what to do. The flooding was obviously from the she septic system.
Your children were so grossed out that they almost didn’t feel like having dinner at all. Who could blame them? They just came home and the first thing they have was a wading in a pool of sewage. Not a pleasant thing. And what’s more, you weren’t aware of it until they went home. That morning, the lawn was still perfect. It seemed that something terrible happened in the septic system. Your husband left for work a month ago and won’t be back from Japan for another three months. You had no idea what was going on so you called up the septic professional that your husband always talked to.
The septic professional told you that your leach field didn’t have a regular inspection and monthly treatments for the past year because your husband thought it would be better to just pump out the tank every three years. You had visitors two months ago and that must have taxed the septic tank and leach field a lot. As you know, the septic system is designed and installed according to the size of your household. Since there was a significant increase in number of people that produced waste, your septic tank and leach field had to work double time. And because you didn’t have monthly leach field treatments, the system finally had its limit.
But the septic professional told you that all you had to do was to pump the tank and start the monthly leach field treatments to rescue potential failure. The flooding was only a temporary setback. In a way, the system was shocked by the sudden increase in wastewater. When the septic professional arrived, he also checked the drains and pipes. He discovered clogs in the drains especially in the basement. It seemed that there were a few people in your household who didn’t follow proper drainage usage as well. This increased the amount of solid wastes even more that was why the leach field got clogged.
The septic tank was pumped out and cleaned. Then, the monthly leach field treatment was administered which contained non-pathogenic bacteria that greatly improved the performance of the existing bacteria when it came to degrading the solid waste materials. This kind of treatment is very safe for you and the surrounding environment. When the treatment reaches the leach field, the amount of aerobic bacteria is increased. When this happens, the accumulated biomat that ended up clogging the leach field gets consumed. The soil returns to its normal percolation rate. The treatment should be done every month to ensure the leach field’s ability to absorb the effluent efficiently, and to lower the possibility of its getting clogged.
You baked some cookies for the septic professional for his efforts. The lawn was also cleaned up. Your children were very relieved that the smell and the sewage were gone. They loved to play on the lawn after school and during weekends. This really gave them their simple joy back. And this gave you the sense of fulfillment that you were indeed a good mother and homeowner. Your family’s health was above everything else. That evening, your husband called. You told him everything that happened about the septic tank and the leach field. He apologized for what happened and swore to always have the monthly leach field treatments as recommended by your septic professional.