Clean Water and Sanitation Should Not Be Taken for Granted

According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: “2.5 billion people—practice open defecation or lack adequate sanitation facilities, and the consequences can be devastating for human health as well as the environment. “ In India alone 600 million people practice open defecation which is a major source of the so called “water-borne” diseases, and human suffering and premature death. According to UNICEF, 2.2 million people die each year from diarrhea. Human waste is carried by precipitation to ditches onto streams and into rivers where it enters the water supply. Flies and vermin carry bacteria and disease from feces to food stores and humans.

In addition to those without any sanitation, there are reported to be 2.1 billion people who use toilets connected to septic tanks that are not maintained, back up or use other systems that discharge raw sewage into open drains or surface waters without adequate treatment which degrades the rivers and streams. Drinking water tainted with sewage is the source of “water-related” diseases that are carried from one host to another through water. These diseases included salmonella, schistosomiasis, cholera, crytosporidiosis, campylobacter, giardia, meningitis, shigellois, dysentery, hookworm, roundworm, tapeworms, dengue fever, leptospirosis, hepatitis A, typhoid, scabies and botulism. Overall, 40% of the population of earth lack adequate sanitation facilities and reliable access to clean water. 

from CDC

In the United States access to adequate sanitation facilities and clean water is taken for granted. However, almost 25% of households depend on an individual septic system (also referred to as an onsite system) or small community cluster systems to treat their wastewater. Just having flush toilets to carry the waste from the house does not mean it is adequately treated. Maintenance of these systems is often left to the individual household. Many of these systems are aging beyond their natural lifetimes and many system owners simply do not know how to properly manage their septic systems and have not bothered to learn. Improperly managed septic systems can result in system back-ups and overflows, surfacing sewage in your yard, polluted groundwater and surface water -a risk to public health and the environment. Sixty percent of the households in the United States that have septic systems also have private drinking water wells.

Though responsibility and management of septic systems and private drinking water wells belong to the individual owner, oversight and regulation of these systems falls to the states and local health departments. Virginia like many states has struggled to try to get homeowners to properly maintain their septic systems, both conventional and alternative and to consider routine testing of their drinking water from private wells. Homeowners fail to see or simply ignore indications that their septic systems have failed, do not pump their tanks at appropriate intervals and do not comply with inspection and maintenance regulations or manufacturer recommendations for alternative systems. Homeowners think because they are not required to test their wells, it does not have to be done.

The United States has one of the safest and most advanced water supply and sewage treatment systems in the world. However, we struggle to find the political will to properly maintain our public water infrastructure in our cities and fail to convey to owners of septic systems and private water wells how to properly operate and maintain their systems and the importance of doing so. While the water still flows and toilets flush we would rather spend money on “life style” rather than maintaining essential services like water and sewage.

Under the Clean Water Act the United States has made tremendous advances in the past 35 years to clean up our rivers and streams by controlling pollution from industry and sewage treatment plants. I am old enough to remember taking river water samples before the regulations, so I know how far we've come; however we seem to have stalled out. We've failed to solve the problem of eradicating sanitation failures by reaching the individual household and private system owners how their systems work and the importance of ensuring that they do. Also, our public water and sanitation infrastructure is aging. The distribution systems leak, the treatment plants have often not kept up with growth in volume of sewage that needs to be treated. Finally, the 25% of households that operate their own systems are increasing in absolute number, the systems built in the 1970’s and 1980’s are reaching the end of their natural lives and this has created growing source of contamination to our waters. In order to continue to make progress in cleaning up our rivers and streams we must learn how to control pollution from these diffuse, or non-point, sources as well as maintain our water infrastructure.

Since the advent of the Clean Water Act mandating improved treatment of sewage, outbreaks of disease caused by drinking water are no longer common in the United States, but despite advances in water management and sanitation, waterborne disease outbreaks continue to occur in the U.S. and can lead to serious acute, chronic, or sometimes fatal health consequences. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects data from all the states on waterborne diseases. From 1971 to 2002, there were 764 documented waterborne outbreaks associated with drinking water, resulting in 575,457 cases of illness and 79 deaths. The symptoms of water borne disease often include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and sometimes fever. It is no uncommon to mistake a case of water related disease for “food poisoning” or a “24-hour stomach virus.” Contaminated water can often look, smell and taste fine. Not all water borne diseases are recognized as such or reported to the CDC.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) believes the true impact of disease is much higher. Research done at the NIH indicate that 10,700 infections and 5, 400 illnesses occur each year in populations served by community groundwater systems; 2,200 infections and 1,100 illnesses occur each year from private wells; and 26,000 infections and 13,000 illnesses occur each year in municipal surface water systems. In recent years, the proportion of outbreaks in the federally regulated public water systems has declined, although these still contribute the majority of outbreak-associated illnesses. Inadequately maintained or constructed private wells and plumbing systems continue to cause illness in growing numbers. In addition, the aging water infrastructure and drinking water distribution system are suspected to be a growing source of water borne disease outbreaks, and are the cause of the familiar "boil water notices" which seem to become more common in our cities. We cannot continue to ignore water and sanitation system repair, replacement, maintenance and improvement and expect to have on demand clean water.

What to Do When Your Septic System Alarms

Many modern and alternative septic systems have alarms to notify the homeowner of a potential problem. Though it can be annoying when the system alarms and you are forced to think about your septic system, this could prevent the system from backing up in your house. Proper maintenance and operation will extend the life of your system and save you money in the long run. So, what does it mean if an alarm sounds and what should you do? There are a series of straightforward steps to take.

• Silence the alarm so it does not drive you and all your neighbors insane. 
• Determine what type of alarm it is. Typically it is either a high water alarm or if you have a blower for an ATU tank the blower may be out. 
• If you have a blower, feel the casing of the blower motor to make sure that the blower is operating. You can also often hear the hum of the blower. If not, call a licensed and certified septic repair company (not a septic pump out company) to replace the blower. You have a day or two before the undertreated sewage starts flowing to your leach field and begins to damages it. Get it fixed before that happens.
• If it is not the blower, then it is probably a high water level alarm in your septic tank or your secondary tank. 

A high water alarm is caused by either too much water going into the tank or not enough going out. A high water alarm if not properly addressed will cause septic waste to ultimately back up into your house, though that may occur after your drainfield is fully damaged. A typical septic system has four main components: a pipe from the home, a septic tank (or two), a drainfield (alternative systems might have drip fields, sand mounds or peat tanks where a traditional drainfield is not possible or has failed), and the soil. Many systems also have pumps to move the liquids from the home to the septic tank or from the septic tank to the drainfield, and all systems have pipes connecting the tanks and drainfield. There are also Alternative systems that have additional components such as; float switches, pumps, and other electrical or mechanical components including additional treatment tanks and filters which can clog if not cleaned and replaced regularly (depending on what you flush down the toilet or pour down the drain). It is the alternative systems that typically have alarms.

A high water alarm is caused by one of two things either too much water flowing into the septic tank or not enough water flowing out. If too much water is flowing in you either have a plumbing leak or a running toilet. After several years, the flapper in the toilet tank should be replaced because it does not always seal properly. Check every toilet (and tank) as well as all sinks for dripping faucets. Usually, it takes something like an incompletely closed faucet or running toilet to cause a septic tank to over fill. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one out of every 10 homes has a leak that is wasting at least 90 gallons of water per day, look carefully for leaks.

The high water alarm is not likely to be caused by excess sludge in the tank, but it can happen when the tank has not been pumped for years and you have a couple of days of high volume usage or doing a month’s worth of laundry in a single day. That is what typically causes the septic system to backup during holidays and parties. A broken septic tank lid can also allow rain and runoff to enter the septic tank and over fill the tank. If it has not rained recently, or you were not running the hoses or a sprinkler, then that is unlikely to be the cause of a high water alarm.

If the problem is not the water entering the tank, then there is a problem with water leaving the tank. This could be caused by pump failure, a blockage in the line to the drainfield which may include a clogged filter, or clogging in the drainfield itself. You need a septic service company to determine what is causing the problem, though check your circuit breakers to make sure that any pumps have power and you could pull the filter in the white pipe between your tanks.

The basic design of a septic tank will only work if the sludge is not too thick on the bottom and the grease and scum is not too thick on top, and if the flow to the tank is not excessive. If there is too much waste on the bottom of the tank or too much water flowing to the tank, there will not be enough time for the solids and liquids to settle out before the tank starts releasing water containing large amounts of fecal waste to the drain field. The fecal waste will over time clog the drainfield. Also, if there is too much grease and scum floating on top, the scum will be released to the drainfield. A septic system is not a trash can. Don’t put dental floss, feminine hygiene products, condoms, diapers, cotton swabs, cigarette butts, coffee grounds, cat litter, paper towels, latex paint, pesticides, or other hazardous chemicals into your system they can end up clogging the filter and/or lines if carried from the tank.

In addition, the National Small Flows Clearinghouse has seen septic distribution pipes plugged with a “noxious fibrous mass” that was grease and cellulose from toilet paper that only occurred in homes with water softening systems. A clog in the distribution system will also cause a high water alarm as the septic water cannot be released or pumped to the drainfield. It is believed that the brine in the conventional septic tank interferes with the digestion of the cellulose fibers and can be carried over into the septic systems drain field. A study in Virginia involving two adjacent septic field dispersal systems in a shared mound have shown that the trenches that received the septic effluent with water softener brine discharges formed a thick, gelatinous slime layer that clogged the infiltrating surface, while the trenches receiving no salt water discharge remained open with a normal microbial clogging layer. Commercial septic tank additives may assist in the breakdown of fecal waste, but do not eliminate the need for periodic pumping and can be harmful to the system. Saving money by not pumping your septic tank could result in the need to replace your drainfield.

Septic tank wastewater after preliminary settling and in alternative septic systems undergoing secondary treatment flows to the drainfield, where it percolates into the soil, which provides final treatment by removing harmful bacteria, viruses, and nutrients. The waste cannot contain too much solid material or scum. High quantities of solids in the waste stream will overwhelm the drainfield. Initially, nitrogen and fecal bacteria will be released to the groundwater as the soil becomes saturated with solids and scum. Eventually the perforations in the pipes to the leach field through which waste water flows become clogged and the waste backs through the system. If a high water problem is left unaddressed, the septic system will back up into your home. Before the septic backs up into your home the high water alarm will sound.