Treasure Beach and that mysterious tank

Treasure Beach and that mysterious tank   The main rumor this past month is how and when will the county put sewers in Treasure Beach. The second big question locals want to know is how much will it cost once it in service. I have to admit there are some very good reasons for the rumor. Yes, the county is talking about it, and some day we might just see it all pan out. Some locals even tell me they can't wait for sewers because of the troubles with septics leaking into the canals would end. WOW ! This is an odd statement, but I really hope nothing is per say getting to our canals like that ! So, lets all go over the facts about septic while we still have them, and maybe we can help a few owners out from any headaches, or reasons for failures with septic.   One thing we all have in Treasure Beach is a septic tank hooked up to our homes. It doesn't matter what size of home you have or type, we all have that tank. For some of us its a strange buried concrete box that comes without instructions. First off, the island is built on a very sandy top layer with coral as a base, and this is one main reason septic is a darn good way to work with waste from a home. Sand is used for water filter systems to this day in many more sophisticated systems world wide. To understand these concrete tank eco systems, you have to know how it works, or have some understanding of the technology that goes behind them. History shows us these little tanks have been around for hundreds of years, and some have out lasted a 100year use in other countries and never being pumped out. These old historic septic tanks actually worked well, some are even in far less good soil conditions compared to our area. There are home owners right now heading for failure with these simple systems and don't know it. Some locals tell me they have had been pumped more than once already in the past few years and cannot reason why so much trouble. A proper tank and drain field, also called a leach bed can operate with almost no maintenance for generations. So you ask, how is it, we see so much failure ? The key word on septic is eco system. Before we get into failures, lets talk about how this mysterious thing works. Basically all your drains inside the house are piped to the septic tank, anything going down the drain is headed for that buried tank. A good tank will have a large capacity to hold all the nasty solid stuff or should I say a limited amount before it hits the drain field, but an ideal tank will take a lot before backing up. At this point the tank is holding solids and pushing water to the top, the waste goes to the bottom end of the tank and water is drained off thru openings near the top of the tank. The water goes out to a drain field as I mentioned before, this water flows to a grid like set of pipes that are built with channels which are open to allow water to drain. The idea here is that overflowing water will go to these pipes and soak down into the stone, then sand. In long terms, the water will drain down thru the sand and filter itself doing this. Yes, believe it, but the water will become clean as it passes down thru sand. Basically the tank solids is where trouble can arise. The biggest failures are in the tank itself for most of us. You must feed the tank with bacteria yeast or enzymes such as " Rid x" to get the tank ( hot ) as they say in the business. A good tank will run above 80degs inside or even higher throughout the summer and even winter months. The heat is a key source for the yeast to activate and eat the solids as they arrive in the tank leaving just water mix with light residue that can now drain to the leach bed. Yeah, the little guys need to be healthy so they can eat up waste, paper, and even food grade grease. Basically you need to keep treating the tank or the yeast bacteria will die and at that point the tank will fill with solids and backup up drains. Because we do not monitor or check our tanks, we'll never know something is wrong until the smelly brown water shows up in our drains inside the house. A disaster that could have been avoided. Generally its a good idea to use a product like Rid-x about once per month, or every 2 to 3 months depending on your home living style. A small tank is more likely to fail than the larger ones but any size tank can fail. There are several reason for this, so lets explore them. Like I pointed out, temperature is a working part of the tank, and a small one flushed with too much cold water for example can destroy the tanks ability to eat the solids quickly filling up and backing up to the home. Just imagine the enzymes basically have to eat fast enough to keep up with your homes output for waste solids. For some reason based on use, single wide trailers were allowed to use a very small tanks for example on the properties in this county. In some cases this was fine, but some home owners that later upgraded to a double wide, or full size slab house and did not change out the tank, this was a Big mistake !  Naturally the bigger tanks cost more, they required more space to be buried and the leach bed etc all adds more cost, and mess before the job is completed but the bigger tank will handle and run better in general. These tanks come in various sizes and now even come with more sophisticated types have hit the markets, but lets just stay with the basic ones most us have here. The best way to deal with the tank and treatment is to monitor "you and your lifestyle". The local pump out truck tells me just one cigarette flushed down a toilet for example can kill the tank. WOW uh ? Bleach is about the worst thing you can use around these tanks, but we all most likely use bleach at some point. Personally if I use bleach for cleaning, I must admit we use bleach in our home, but afterwards, I wait about 24hrs to 48hrs and then add new treatment to the tank to insure that it has life or will restart working again incase I've damaged the tanks life. When shopping for household cleaners you might have to check the label for  " safe on septic" , yeah, this one is for Treasure Beach home owners ! IF, for some reason the label on the cleaner says nothing, you might want to check with the manufacture or just NOT buy it for use.  Secondary failures are the leach bed or drain fields. Several things can go wrong here too, but less chance if your tank has been kept healthy or "hot" and active. In Treasure Beach we are a bit tight on lot sizes so we do get people parking their cars near or on top of the drain fields. This can cause the lines to collapse and a big nasty repair bill, so its important to keep the area clear. A few stories about tree roots, bushes etc have rumored to cause the death of a drain field too, but not many in Treasure Beach, but just so your aware. Now, for the "not so obvious" causes for failures but home owners have done these. Any drain cleaner is harmful to the tanks life, so again, wait a few days, and then add treatment to your tank if you've done a major cleaning inside the house and poured a lot of waste cleaners into your drain. By the way, if you have never done this, a box of Rid-x can be flushed down the toilet in a few minutes, so easy and yet very important. YEAH, its that simple. Once a tank does back up, its pretty much up to the pump truck to get your waste removed, but that is again where we need to treat the cleaned out tank once the pump out job is completed. If your expecting guest from up North in the winter time, I'd treat my tank days before they arrive. Other issues not so often thought about, but here's some odd causes for failures and we can laugh at them, but YEAH, I've heard this was done in Treasure Beach ! Rinsing paint brushes, can be a death bomb to your septic tank. Washing out old gas, or outboard chemicals down the drain is a big NO NO. Paint thinners, degrease ( automotive types ) , don't think we've done this one but yeah, its has happened. Most laundry soaps are not that great, so its another reason to treat and retreat the tank often. All the new generation anti bacteria cleaners are harmful to septic tanks but then we all knew that right ? Alcohols in general can be a problem too, but that would take a lot of alcohol to kill the tank. About the simplest one is running TOO much cold water. Draining your hot tub would be another one, but I've noticed most owners are dumping that stuff in the canal these days. Fact is, the hot tub is an eco disaster no matter where you put the stuff so maybe someday we'll see laws regarding these chemicals too or how to deal with the used water. Dumping old lawn chemicals down the drain, rising out ashtrays, even water based paints will kill the life forms in the tank. Simply put, think of your septic tank like a large fish aquarium. Its an eco system that requires heat, food, bacteria to work with and can be very sensitive to chemicals. Ok, maybe you'll read this and save yourself some headaches. Any questions ? There will be a test on Friday !     L.A. Panchuk ( Author: The Devil's Magnet ) Reporter: Xzone radio