Being a single working mom has never been easy. Everyday, you left the kids at school and then pick them up after work. There were times when you still had to haul your kids with you to the grocery store to pick up the things that you need for a week. It was like juggling life size balls that you just couldn’t give up because if you do, life gets out of whack. It was hard to face all the responsibilities by yourself but your kids understood. Pretty soon they would both be entering high school. By then, you needed to have two more jobs to keep them going. Even if college is still too far away to talk about, they offered to work by then as well. Summer already started and both were keen on finding summer jobs never realizing that not too far in our future was a flooded septic system.
Your daughter got hired to assist in a nearby bakery and your son was accepted to assist your septic expert. Both were very good exposures but you worried about your son more. The septic system isn’t really a very healthy place for a kid in high school. Your septic expert talked to you about the things that he would have your son do and that was just to assist in preparing the equipment. He was not told to handle chemicals but he still had to wear protective clothing as he did his job. Your son would just be keeping the front part of the truck clean. He and his men would be the ones cleaning the back part where all the action was. With this, you agreed.
One summer morning, when your kids already left, you decided to get some groceries and maybe have some coffee. When you got home, a question echoed in your head—why is my septic system flooded? By then, you immediately called up the septic expert and in just minutes, he arrived with your son. Your son stayed by your side and explained how this could have happened.
a) You may not have adhered to the scheduled treatments and pump outs. This results to a very high accumulation of sludge. The sludge is then dispersed in to the drain field together with the supposedly pre-treated effluent. Clogging or blockage then occurs and the raw sewage backs up and overflows onto the yard causing septic system flooding.
b) Damage may have been done to the inner components of the septic system. The pipes or lines may have experienced crushing or cracking brought about by heavy construction and vehicles over the septic system area. Leaks happen because of this. Then the raw sewage backs up and overflows into the property.
c) The rain gutter may still be directed to flow over the septic system. Because of the additional water load, the sewage floods up into the house or overflows above the area of the septic system. The additional water may also retard the breaking down of solid wastes.
d) Usage of harsh chemicals and antibacterial solutions may have been very frequent. This kills off the bacteria that degrade the solid wastes. If the bacteria are completely eradicated, then there is no way the system would be rid of the solid waste materials. Blockages and clogs will definitely happen.
e) Also, there may have been improper use the drains, toilets, and sinks. This leads to more clogging and backing up of sewage.
Your son has definitely gotten the hang of what the septic experts did. You could even see the newly found respect that he had for the septic expert. He said that he would make sure that everyone in the house would cooperate in caring for the septic system. Your son gave you a list that he printed for the summer job. It had all the reminders that a household should have to maintain their septic system. Having a fully functional septic system was great but having children who know the value of hard work was even better.
The bottom line is to treat your septic system with beneficial bacteria monthly to ensure the proper digestion of waste material. With the use of many anti-bacterial additives, the natural bacteria found in our septic systems has been dying off and thus allowing sludge to accumulate in the septic tank and drain field clogging our systems with bio-mat. This can reduce septic tank sludge build up and possibly prevent septic system flooding and prevent inevitable failure of the system.