[Magdalen] Septic Tanks

[Sibyl Smirl]

I guess I should have said you need to know how to live with one.  I 
have lived with one ever since I was born (except for a few years when I 
was in college, married, and moving around), and learned how early. 
I've always known what not to flush, which includes anything plastic as 
well as synthetic fibers: some plastics are biodegradable, most are not. 
  And you've got to think of those critters down there as your _friends_ 
(with somewhat different tastes than you have), and be careful not to 
poison them.  They aren't the disease bacteria that you buy the 
cleansing products to kill.  And know where your leach lines are, and 
keep woody plants away from them.  All that said, there _are_ some soil 
types and drainage patterns, the "lay of the land", that are just not 
suitable for septic tanks.

On 2/3/16 11:06 PM, Sibyl Smirl wrote:
> On 2/3/16 3:09 PM, Susan Hagen wrote:
>> Oh God Jay, enough already.  Septic problems are beyond nasty.  I had
>> the system in our NH house back up into the basement TWICE!  It was
>> undersized and no one had ever told this city dweller the damn things
>> have to be pumped out periodically.
>
> They mostly don't need pumping, if they're working properly.
> Micro-organisms that are doing their job liquefy everything, and it all
> goes into the soil out of the leach lines.  Sometimes too much
> inappropriate stuff (like synthetic fibers that don't biodegrade) gets
> flushed down and clogs things, sometimes too much stuff like chlorine
> and other micro-organism killers massacres the proper population (you
> can be _too_ sanitary in your bathroom: I mostly use white vinegar)(you
> can rebuild the proper critter population with cultures that are
> marketed for septic tanks), sometimes tree or shrub roots invade and
> fill the leach lines (the reason for roto-rooter).
>
>


-- 
Sibyl Smirl
I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net