Time For a Talk With Homeowners

SepticSmart Week may be over, but it’s always a good idea to talk to your customers about proper care of their systems
Time For a Talk With Homeowners

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If you have been doing any reading in magazines for wastewater treatment plant operators you have seen quite a discussion about wipes and their flushability. While the wipes are often flushable from the homeowner perspective – “I flush the toilet and they go away” – they are clogging up pipes and creating problems in the treatment plants.

This is not news to anybody working with onsite sewage treatment systems. For years we have seen these wipes clog pipes, baffles and of course the effluent screens. The municipal section of the wastewater industry is calling for companies producing these products to use different criteria to make flushable claims in their advertising. We need to support these efforts as an industry; so when you are asked, take the opportunity to weigh in on how you see these products affecting the performance of the systems you service.

This is a good talking point to highlight to homeowners that they should not put anything down the toilet unless they have eaten it first. The one exception is toilet paper! Two-ply toilet paper will start to break apart and disperse within five minutes of being flushed. This same standard should be applied to cleaning wipes if they are to be viewed as flushable products.

Tell the homeowners that what they do or do not put into their system has a large impact on how the system will perform over the long-term and will affect their pocketbook in terms of maintenance costs and a reduction in headaches due to their system backing up during the Sunday Night Football party.

We have just finished a national effort sponsored by the EPA and conducted through the MOU partners, 17 associations and organizations in our industry. On the SepticSmart website the EPA has posted numerous materials that can be used to educate homeowners about their systems.

While having a national week to draw attention to taking care of systems is good, we know that the education process for homeowners unfamiliar with their system needs to take place continuously throughout the year. Given the current press about problems with wipes and the national effort on education makes this fall the perfect time for you to contact each of your clients and provide them with this information.

The industry will be better off if we do a better job educating homeowners. With the homeowner as your partner in system care, onsite systems will truly be viewed as a long-term alternative to big pipes and municipal treatment plants.

About the Author
Jim Anderson is connected with the University of Minnesota onsite wastewater treatment education program, is an emeritus professor in the university’s Department of Soil Water and Climate, and education coordinator for the National Association of Wastewater Technicians. Send him questions about septic system maintenance and operation by email to kim.peterson@colepublishing.com.



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