Member-only story
My Septic System Decided to Stop Working in February
Single lady skills, activate
It’s completely my fault. I knew the sump pump in my back septic tank was probably deceased. But if everything else seems to be going okay, it’s one of those things you put off fixing.
And then it decided to rain three inches overnight, in February, when the ground was already saturated.
It’s all fun and games until you can’t flush the toilet
Yesterday my kitchen sink started making gurgling noises at 5:00 in the morning.
Gurgling is bad. Nothing in your house should ever gurgle.
My kitchen is closest to my front septic tank, and no, I don’t know why I have so many septic tanks. Science, I guess.
The front septic tank holds the aerator, which is a wand-like electrical thingy that pumps air into the tank to feed the bacteria that eat poo (more science) which means the bacteria are aerobic, as opposed to anaerobic.
Any time I see the words “aerobic bacteria”, I imagine amoebas wearing little leg warmers.
If my kitchen sink gurgles, that means the front septic tank is too full of…. stuff, shall we say, and it’s not draining into the back tank and being ejected out into my…
