The Truth About Septic Systems

This author has only forwarded his opinion, but spun it as "Truth". There are four overriding themes running through the article. All people want is your money, all regulators are evil and driven to get even more of your money, all those with college degrees and legitimate accreditation in the subject of onsite sewage disposal are just stupid, and even those "environmentalists" like himself who should know better are mislead. And it is good to know that the author is in the first category since he is trying to sell his book. Man, how did this article get through a responsible editor? Does this magazine have independent fact checkers? Even more, the author has a personal spin and what sounds like a personal axe to grind about his own "out of sight, out of mind" philosophy and general lack of knowledge on onsite sewage disposal. While there are occasional glimpses of clarity acknowledging that septic systems can experience problems, the author fails to provide any scale to what is or causes a real problem. Instead he dives back into the everybody involved in the subject is just greedy, and an idiot. That is excepting himself and a certain "Sewage Messiah" mentioned once, but apparently not worth actually interviewing. Given human nature to ignore problems, anyone with a problem but hoping to not have to spend money would immediate think they don't have a problem even if they were constantly treading in toilet waste everyday in the back yard. It's just a spring, right?

I’m astounded how forcefully the writer defends polluters. There
are so many reasons septic tanks need to be upgraded – systems get
old and breakdown. People are lazy and don’t maintain them.
Regulations get tighter. And towns grow in population. You wouldn’t
let your roof go for 30 to 50 years without maintaining it and
without replacing it – the same is true of your septic system. A
roof protects you from the weather; a septic tank protects the
environment from you. I’m proud city and federal leaders make clean
water a priority, and we should continue raising the bar on
everyone – homes, businesses and farms. The goal is a clean healthy
environment, so builders should be required to install the cleanest
septic system, not the cheapest. It’s the right thing to do.
Defending the folks in Los Osos is disheartening – the town has
been thumbing their nose at local and federal clean water laws for
three decades now with absolutely nothing to show for it. Every
other city and town in this nation must meet clean water standards
and so should they. They’re not heroes, they’re polluters. I
disagree with this author – his motive is saving money when it
should be what’s best for the environment.

Lloyd Kahn article on septic systems is very informative but
does not tell the whole truth about the pro's and con's of sewage
disposal by septic system. I whole hardedly agree with Mr. Kahn
that monuds, while innovative, are far to expensive to be used for
anything but dire need. Septic systems, ground disopsal, by their
very nature are designed to fail and they fail in two ways. The day
they are put into use starts the process. Sewage is quite dense and
starts clogging soil pores thus stopping percolation and ultimately
breaking the surface of the ground. Failure One. Ground water is to
close to the bottom of the system or the soil does not have
sufficient filter medium to properly cleanse the sewage thus
contaminating ground water. Failure Two. This failure is never seen
but is the most dangerous to human health. We know from
contaminated wells in a Frederick County, Maryland Subdivision of
this fact. Failing systems into ground water were traced by dying
these systems and the results showing up in adjoining property
water wells. In this way the offending septic systems were Located.
Following the contamination was that simple and you can't tell me
drinking water from those wells did not pose a major health risk.
The fact is many persons have been hospitalized from just this
problem. The pressure to develop land that is not suitable for
residential use is part and parcel the reason unconventional
systems are being proposed, designed and build. My friends this is
called cooperate greed and government bending to that will, sad to
say. Bob Lloyd Ewa Beach, Hawaii

My folks live in a gated community in southern new england and
the trend in their bayfront community is that people aren't driving
bentleys and cadillacs and gas hogs but they're burying the
equivalent money in their side yards in retrofit septic systems
that wash, cleanse, filter and coddle the ick from their
blackwater. With mound filters that look like cold war bunkers. I'm
sure it is generally good for the environment but the overall water
quality it not ascending as it declined as the other sources of
contaminants are still there. Livestock, chemical, urban centers
and excess fertilization are not being corrected because they can't
afford it or the profit model of the business doesn't accomodate
responsibility. So we sniff our cabernet and vent our fields of
green mounds and feel much better about ourselves. And we still
can't rake any safe shellfish from the sound. The regulations need
to affect those with the greater causality for improper outflow to
the waterways.
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thanks for your most excellent article. i live in los osos, CA
actually the part of los osos that's called "baywood park". i've
known the water here is fine for 7 years and that the regional
water board, county and newly-formed community services district
have all been lying. we've NEVER had a septic survey. in jan, 2005,
i was "randomly-selected" to receive a "draft cease & desist
order". 83-13 or "the basin plan" says i can't use water
in/discharge anything from my home. we could not challenge the
basin plan and were "convicted" after a year of "hearings" (abuse)
and given CDO's. 11 of us are fighting in court. i suggest you get
in touch with "edochs@charter.net"...editor of The Rock newspaper
and "mark@nowastewater.com" with technology that can SAVE our
community. now, because of assemblyman sam blakeslee's AB 2701, the
county has taken over building a (gravity) sewer and just got a
bizarre 218 vote passed that was "weighted" and "open" but we can't
know there's probably less than 10 property owners who carried the
balloting.