Make It Clear: Why You Can't Just Flush and Forget
Every two weeks, we'll bring you new episodes of “Make It Clear” that cover timely and relevant topics in the water and wastewater industries. Our guests will also provide their unique insights as we discuss the world’s most precious resource.
While our content is mainly geared toward water and wastewater professionals, we welcome everyone who’d like to listen.
Make It Clear: Why You Can't Just Flush and Forget
Top Internet Questions About Septic Systems - Answered!
We’re diving into all the most common septic system questions—how they work, what not to flush, and how to spot trouble before it starts. With real stories, expert advice, and plenty of laughs, we’re breaking down what everyone’s been Googling about keeping septic systems healthy and worry-free.
If you have comments or questions about our podcast, you can reach us through this link. To discuss a project or talk to one of our engineers, call 800-348-9843.
00:08
Angela: Hello and welcome to Make It Clear, a conversational podcast about all things related to water and wastewater. I'm your host, Angela Bounds, and I'm joined by my co-host, Shawn Rapp. In each episode, we'll tackle a relevant topic with facts and expert opinions and make things clear.
Hello and thanks for joining us again. Today it's just Shawn and I. Hi, Shawn.
Shawn: Hey there.
Angela: So Shawn and I wanted to sit down and we wanted to...
00:38
basically go over the top questions according to Google or your top search engine, whatever you would like to use. What are the top questions that are asked about septic systems? That's what we want to talk about today.
Shawn: Yeah, I… this was kind of fun because it's one of those things that's like, you know, a lot people ask a lot of questions about septic systems. And so I thought it'd be kind of fun to pick the top five or six questions and just answer them and go over some stuff.
01:07
Angela: Right. So that's what we're going to do today. Go over ‘em, give you some answers and just try and answer the questions that are at the top of most of our heads. So let's start with question number five. How long does a septic system last?
Shawn: Yeah. We get a lot of questions about that actually here in our customer service department I know, and I worked there in that department for several years.
01:36
I would hear that several times a year. So I know it's on people's minds, but… it really depends.
Angela: I was just going to say, none of us has a crystal ball.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: And there are many factors, some of which we will cover in here that contribute to how long your septic system would last. we have seen drain fields, tanks, things like that, that have been in the ground for 30, 40
02:05
plus years. And they're still going strong. The systems have been treated well. They have not been abused. And they're tickin’ along. They were made well. They're tickin’ along. So… material of construction matters.
Shawn: Good quality material makes a big difference.
Angela: Makes a huge difference. How it was installed. Was it installed properly? Was the...
02:33
proper bedding placed, all of those things. The quality of components. Are there good quality components in there in your septic system? That's going to contribute to the longevity of the system for sure.
Shawn: Just touching on that materials of construction, I know before, I've listened to a bunch of stories from all kinds of people about systems that they have in some places, things like
03:03
metal tanks. Those weren't going to last as long as say concrete or some other materials, but then you've got other things that maybe last a lot longer if it's really well built or of the proper.
Angela: Right. not every...
Shawn: PVC lasts a long time.
Angela: Right. Not every tank is created equal.
Shawn: That's true.
Angela: Right. So there are some states that would allow even concrete tanks to be manufactured
03:32
under specifications that may not last as long as some others. It really depends on, did you use rebar when you were making the tank? Did the manufacturer use rebar? And how much of it did they use? The materials of construction really do matter.
Shawn: Exactly.
Angela: Yeah. And then regular maintenance is a factor. Did you take care of the system?
Shawn: Right. Right. Or did you just let it go and...
04:02
Angela: and pray.
Shawn: Right. I mean, because if you've got a cracked lid or a broken lid on your system or a broken riser, that's going to contribute to all kinds of problems.
Angela: Infiltration.
Shawn: Yep.
Angela: Yep. Yep. Which is going to reduce the life of your system.
Shawn: Or over, you know, over filling your drain field, all kinds of stuff.
Angela: yeah. All right. Number four. How does a septic system work? What is a septic system?
Shawn: You know, we kind of...
04:31
Those questions are so related that it thought it'd be a good idea to cover them both at the same time.
Angela: Yeah. So when we refer to a septic system, typically what we're talking about is an on-site septic system.
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: Meaning that you don't have a central sewer at your house. You don't get to flush it and it goes down the drain and somebody else deals with it.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: You have
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a septic tank at your home. That septic tank then feeds either a secondary treatment system like AdvanTex or a sand filter or any variety of secondary treatment systems. And last it goes into a drain field. There is a drain field and a septic tank at your house at a minimum. And oftentimes you'll have a secondary treatment system. That's what we mean
05:28
when we say septic system.
Shawn: Right. It's amazing because each part of a septic system really has an important role to play. And if one of them is missing, you have a problem.
Angela: There might be an issue here. I think we've talked about this before. It's interesting because it's the things that we take for granted because we just know that they exist. So you may not have a secondary treatment unit.
05:57
You may not have AdvanTex or a sand filter or any variety of product. It really depends on the soil that you have.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: Right. Will your soil receive what it needs to or does it need a little bit of help?
Shawn: Right.
Angela: If it needs help, you got to get a secondary treatment system. If it doesn't need help, you don't need one.
Shawn: Right. There's a lot of systems out there that just need a pump and a filter and…
06:26
Angela: Uh-huh. And straight to the drain field.
Shawn: Yep. It's all you need.
Angela: Yep. So each part really is important just to protect the drain field. Like we talk about it a lot.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: That the whole reason we do what we do is to protect the water. Right. You’re protecting the groundwater. Well, you can't just pay lip service to, well, we're going to protect the groundwater. Like in order to protect the groundwater, you have to protect the health of your drain field.
Shawn: Right.
06:56
Angela: In order to protect the health of your drain field, have to make sure that you keep as much of the solids in your septic tank as you can. Right? In order to keep as much of the solids in your septic tank as you can, you have to make sure that you don't put stuff down your drains. It is this cycle of things that you need to do in order to ensure
07:24
that in the end you're protecting the water, you're elongating the life of your drain field, you're making sure you don't have to maintain your septic tank more often than you should, et cetera, et cetera.
Shawn: Yep. And it's real important to your tank is a really important part because then you get the retention time that you need in order to make sure that you're getting… you have watertight tank and you have retention time, get the biology in the tank to work...
07:53
Angela: You're maximizing.
Shawn: You're maximizing all that and the bacteria eats all the solids and so on and that contributes to other factors. And then you've got a pump and/or a filter that protects the drain field from all those solids and so on. And then the drain field itself has got some protections built into it as well.
Angela: Yeah. You probably already know this, but we are huge proponents of putting a filter in your tank to
08:22
protect your drain field. It is the best way that you protect that drain field.
Shawn: Absolutely.
Angela: If you have a pump, make sure that there is a filter with your pump. Do not just pump solids out there. If you don't have a pump, if you are fortunate enough to have a gravity fed system and you don't require a pump, put a filter on the outlet.
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: Protect that drain field. All right. Question number three, what should not be flushed or poured
08:52
into the septic system? We've talked about this quite a bit as well. We actually did, I think an entire podcast, correct?
Shawn: Yeah, we did.
Angela: Yeah. Back in ‘22, December of ‘22. How does it work? Can I flush this?
Shawn: Yep.
Angela: And we answered a lot of questions about what can and can't be flushed, which you should and shouldn't put in your septic system.
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: Any system, whether you're gravity in the city
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or out on one of these on-site systems, the stuff should not go in your tanks. I cannot say that enough.
09:33
A lot of people don't think about it.
Shawn: Right. Right. Especially if they're on sewer and not on septic.
Angela: Right. I just moved into a new house. We're out in the country. It has a sand filter on it and one of our panels and there is a garbage disposal in it. It wasn't working. It was one of those things that it's just not been working when we moved in and they were like, is that a concern? And I'm like, I'm not using that thing.
Shawn: Right.
10:02
Angela: I will never use it. It does not matter. It doesn't matter. Cause it's, I'm not doing that.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: Cause I know, right? I have the knowledge now.
Shawn: Exactly, yeah.
Angela: Once you have the knowledge...
Shawn: Yeah. Once you know better…
Angela: Once you know better, do better.
Shawn: One of the rules of thumb we typically use is if you wouldn't ingest it or eat it, don't put it down your septic tank or your drain.
Angela: Correct.
Shawn: Don't flush it down the toilet.
Angela: No, no. So kitchen waste is a big one.
10:32
It adds to what the bugs, the work that the bugs have to do in your tank.
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: Essentially. So throw it in the trash.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Or compost it.
Shawn: Yeah. Even better.
Angela: Composting it would be great. If you don't want to compost, put it in the trash.
Shawn: Yep.
Angela: Harsh chemicals. You gotta be really careful with those chemicals. Bath oils.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: I've actually trained my kids, I didn't even think about it. And we were…
11:01
I was cooking a big pot of spaghetti for a soccer team dinner. And I had my cup out and was taking the grease off of the meat and I held it by the sink. I was not going to pour it down the sink, but I held it by the sink and my daughter goes, what are you doing?
11:25
I had this flash and I'm like, oh my gosh, I've taught her so well that she's like, you can't put that into the system. What are you doing?
11:35
It's funny how they pick up on that stuff.
Shawn: Exactly.
Angela: And the same principles do… prior to living in this house, we lived in a city and that's just how we've always lived.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: You don't put the grease down.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: You don't put baby wipes. Like you don't, you just don't do these things.
Shawn: Yeah. And don't clean your shower trap of the hair and then flush it down the toilet because you're just…
Angela: it's the same thing.
Shawn: defeating the purpose of throwing it away and not putting it in…
Angela: Yeah,
12:05
Yes. Another thing too, and want to be kind of clear about this is it's okay to use the normal amounts of cleaners in systems. Just don't overuse...
Angela: Correct.
Shawn: you know, or use excessive amounts of cleaners.
Angela: Yeah. I had to actually, lot of anecdotes in this one. I had to call my dad the other day. I have a family member who's, who's going through cancer treatments and
12:35
they were concerned about the chemotherapy that they're taking and it going into their… they live ruraly. And so they have a septic system and they were really concerned about the tank and they were more concerned with the cleaning solution that they had to use following chemo, ‘cause they were given very specific instructions
13:03
about how they have to clean things with this very harsh cleaner. And I had to call my dad for instructions, like, Hey, they're really worried about this. They don't want to kill their system. Like what's going to happen. And he gave us the equation for like, if you use this much, you're okay. If you go over this, then it's going to be an issue, but the normal amount was fine. Right? We get really concerned about stuff, but normal amounts of things, not going to kill everything off. So…
13:32
All right. The second, second to most? second to most asked question is what are the signs of a failing septic system? Now these can vary greatly.
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: So your alarm can start going off. If your system starts alarming, that's something to be concerned about.
Shawn: Yeah.
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Especially if it's like a low-level alarm and you need to know why.
Angela: Yeah, or high-level alarm.
Shawn: High level alarm as well.
Angela: Yeah, and that can happen sometimes. I can remember getting calls when back in the day, when I was on the customer service line, we won't talk about how many days ago that was. But getting calls from people that were like, my alarm's going off. And when you would talk to them, well, it was, you know, itwas seven o'clock at night,
14:28
They had just gotten home from work and their kids had gotten home from school and extracurricular activities. And they're making dinner, doing dishes, doing laundry, taking showers after the day and all of that stuff. And it's like, Oh yeah, that's what's happening. Like it's just got a flood of usage.
Shawn: Yep. Exactly.
Angela: And then the alarm would stop.
Shawn: Yeah. Once it catches up.
14:53
Angela: Once it catches up, everything's fine.
Shawn: Yeah. Those aren't the alarms we necessarily want to be concerned about. It's the other ones.
Angela: It's the other ones. Or if you're seeing ponding, right? Soggy spots in your drain field. That's a sign that something's wrong. it shouldn't be squishy.
Shawn: Yeah. Or actually even if there was like broken pipes, that kind of thing, that can cause the same thing. So anywhere in your yard or your property, you're seeing soggy spots that you know, there's a pipe going through there or you know, that's part of your septic. That's a
15:23
definite sign.
Angela: Yeah. I always watched too, for excessive green grass around your septic tank.
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: So if your grass is all green and you live rurally, good for you, but there are a lot of situations where the grass isn't, you know, super lush, out in the country. If the, if the grass is really lush,
15:49
and growing at a different rate around your septic tank, specifically, not your drain field. It's going to do that in the drain field. It's getting more nutrients out there, but there should be no nutrients around your septic tank. Right. So I always watch for that too. Like, is it greener around your septic tank? If it's greener around your septic tank, you might want to think about that. Just have it checked.
Shawn: Yeah. Some other things might be odd smells,
Angela: Right? Odors.
16:18
Yeah, Slow draining.
Shawn: Slow draining,
Angea: Yeah. Things to watch for.
Shawn: Yeah, absolutely.
Angela: All right. The number one most asked question on the interwebs is how often should I pump my septic tank?
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: The age-old question.
Shawn: Yeah. And there's a lot of debate about this.
Angela: There is. So my first...
16:47
qualifying answer will be, you should follow the regulations of the jurisdiction in which you live first and foremost. So there are lot of places around the country that have specific regulations governing how often you should pump your septic tank. whatever those may be, that is what you should do.
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: However...
Shawn: Yes. And this is the part that we always add.
Angela: Right.
17:17
However, we always find that it's best to measure your scum and sludge accumulation to determine whether the tank needs to be pumped or not. I've talked before about some of the homes that we have maintained in the past, been responsible for their maintenance. And there were two people living in the home.
17:46
No illnesses, no medications to speak of, treated their system really, really well.
Shawn: Yep.
Angela: And, know, I think the last that I heard it had been like 18 years or 20 years, something like that. And the bugs in their tank, it was the same family that lived there, right? The same couple that lived there for very, very long time. And their bugs just worked.
Shawn: Yeah. It got to an equilibrium point where the
18:15
bugs just took care of everything and it was a… it wasn't accumulating more. It wasn't necessarily decreasing anymore. It just didn't need to be pumped.
Angela: It just didn't need to be pumped. And so you keep an eye on it. You measure those levels annually and pump it when you need.
Shawn: Now, I understand why some jurisdictions have certain restrictions on, you have to pump every three years or every five years. They're trying to be proactive, which I understand.
18:45
It doesn't necessarily bear out the science, but that's what they've decided.
Angela: Correct. And sometimes that happens. I mean, we all see that regulations are put in place for the, what those jurisdictions believe is the betterment of their community. And so we support rules and regulations.
Shawn: Yes, we do.
Angela: But the science says that if you measure your scum and sludge accumulation and maintain your system that
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you only need to pump when the levels get to be too much.
Shawn: Yeah. And we've done a lot of research and collected data for years and years on a lot of these systems.
Angela: Decades at this point.
Shawn: Yeah. Just as a rule of thumb, we typically say if you've got like a 1500 gallon tank with three or four people in home, it's 10 to 12.
Angela: Yep. 10 to 12 years on average. Yeah. With average use.
Shawn: Yep.
19:42
Angela: That's the answer.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Pretty much. Okay. So bonus question?
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: Do we have time for a bonus question?
Shawn: I think we do.
Angela: All right. So the bonus question, this is actually the sixth most asked question on the internet. How much does a septic system cost? And boy, is that a loaded question.
Shawn: Yes, it is.
Angela: Where do you live?
Shawn: Because the main answer is it depends.
20:13
Angela: It depends. It depends on where you live. it depends on what you need. Right? If you just need a septic tank and a drain field, that's going to be less expensive than if you need a secondary treatment system. Right? And if you live in areas of the country where costs are higher, then it's going to cost you more.
20:41
And that is just the nature of the beast. you live in places where the cost of living is lower, then typically your system is going to cost less. There is no hard and fast rule I don't believe. Our best suggestion is just get some quotes.
Shawn: Yep. Exactly.
Angela: Find out exactly what you need. Your jurisdictions and regulations in your community will govern what you need at your home.
21:10
Find out what that is and get some quotes. Gather some quotes from reputable people and go from there. That's your best bet. All right. We got anything else?
Shawn: I think that covers it because it's… we've answered all these questions and I think that kind of covers everything we wanted to talk about today. So…
Angela: Yeah. So we're always willing to accept your questions too if there's anything that you ever want to hear about.
21:38
Shawn: Yeah, we would love to field some questions.
Angela: Yeah. So you can send those questions to training@orenco.com. T R A I N I N G at O R E N C O.com. And we'd be more than happy to field them and talk about them on the podcast. Just give you a little bit of insight.
Shawn: Yeah, absolutely.
Angela: And input. All right.
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Thank you, Shawn...
Shawn: Yeah, thank you.
Angela: for answering the questions with me and thank you all for listening.
We want to thank you again for joining us today. Before you go, don't forget to subscribe where you listen to podcasts so you're notified when new episodes are posted. Also, you can leave your comments or suggestions through the contact link on our website, www.orenco.com. Until next time, have a great day.
