It’s Time to Talk About Your Septic System
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This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. Washington Wise from Charles Schwab is an original podcast that unpacks the stories making news in Washington. Listen at schwab.com slash Washington Wise.
Here's your money briefing for Monday, March 25th. I'm Arianna Espuru for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whelan. I know you don't want to think about it, but if your home has an on-site septic system, avoiding it could lead to thousands of dollars down the drain.
So many things can go wrong. And that's why as much as you might want to ignore your septic tank and your septic system, you really shouldn't. It doesn't need a lot of maintenance, but it does need some maintenance. And it also needs some thoughtfulness.
We'll talk to Wall Street Journal columnist Chris Frieswick about what homeowners need to know. That's after the break.
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What problem does this episode warn homeowners about regarding septic systems?
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Your septic system is designed to be ignored, even though you use it every day. But to keep it running smoothly, all it really needs is your consideration and some maintenance. WSJ columnist Chris Frieswick joins me. So Chris, what actually makes up a septic system?
The septic system basically starts at your toilet or your sink or your bathtub and pipes go down out of your house into a major pipe that then leads into a septic tank. Septic tank is where all of the effluent from your home lands. And then at that point, the bacteria that lives in that tank, which is helpfully provided by your own gut, eats what's in there and basically helps the tank to separate into solid and liquid. The liquid then drains off via another pipe to a junction box, which then connects the to a leach field, which is basically, it's the watery part of the effluent gets spread across a very large area of soil that then filters that effluent and helps to take anything that's toxic out of it.
The problem comes when you have a lot of closely located leach fields all draining into a groundwater system. So that's where you start seeing problems with tainted groundwater and stuff. But for most communities that have healthy septic systems with enough spacing apart where they're on fairly large lots, they work great. I mean, they've been working great for thousands and thousands of years. That bacteria and also the bacteria that lives in the soil, that they're all working on this effluent to break it down, to attach to it and to make it so that it's not a pollutant. So that it won't infiltrate the local groundwater, which you drink. You don't want to drink your own, you know, stuff.
Absolutely not. So there's tons of bacteria and these microscopic creatures that are all working to make sure that, like you said, we don't drink water we're not supposed to drink. What kinds of homes actually have these systems on site?
So approximately 20% of residential homes. homes have what's called an on-site wastewater system, which most people would just call a septic system. That means they're not in a town sewer line where the waste would be carried away to a central processor. somewhere in town. You're going to find these on like older homes, older developments with larger lots. And they're generally single family. Although I was talking with someone who installs these and he did a huge septic installation for a residential apartment complex, but it was still operating with the basic foundational stuff I just described to you, a septic tank, a junction box and a leach field.
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