There’s a popular TV show in which a lucky family gets a completely new and elaborate home in place of an old one, built in record time by an army of workers and all filmed by camera crews.
The highlight of each episode is when a bus behind which the owners are standing pulls away to reveal the new dwelling. Of course the recipients are ecstatic, jumping up and down, shrieking with delight, breaking down in tears.
Onsite installers and associations over the years have delighted families in less dramatic ways, by putting together groups of volunteers and donors to replace failed treatment systems at little or no cost to the owners.
A few such projects have been connected to the above-described TV show. Others have been part of Habitat for Humanity endeavors. Still others are stand-alone projects undertaken for no reason beyond dedication to the common good.
What’s more important?
Of course an onsite system won’t thrill a family as much as a brand-new house, or for that matter a new car or big-screen TV. But in the end, what’s more important to a home than sanitation facilities?
A few years ago, the British Medical Journal published the results of a global survey in which respondents named sanitation as the greatest medical milestone of the last 150 years. Not vaccines. Not antibiotics like penicillin. Not MRI imaging, open-heart surgery or cancer treatments. Just plain old sanitation. It may not be very exciting, but it has saved the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world.
So the gifts given by professionals in our industry are great indeed. The way they come about is a tribute to the profession and everyone in it.
How it happens
These are grassroots projects. Typically, someone identifies a family in need and talks to the state onsite association about organizing a project. Association members then pool their resources and get to work.
There’s more involved than giving up a little time to dig holes and ditches. Someone needs to provide excavating and other machinery. Suppliers have to be found to donate a septic tank, piping, drainfield media, risers, and other supplies.
Someone needs to do a perc test or soils evaluation. Someone has to develop a design. Regulators need to sign off on and inspect the system. And then there’s the work of getting the components in the ground and the system connected to the house. It’s a substantial undertaking.
Major difference
When it’s done, a family’s property is transformed. Where once a raw-sewage pipe drained into a ditch or creek, or sewage was surfacing on a lot where children played and pets roamed, a family now has a fully functioning septic system that protects its own property and the surrounding environment.
The economic value of these projects often runs into several thousand dollars. The social and environmental value is much greater. So the associations and the practitioners involved can feel justly proud of what they’ve done.
You see reports on these projects now and then in Onsite Installer. The latest one to cross my desk involves Kyle Shern, owner of Bio-Gard, an installation and service provider in Columbia, Mo. He’s looking to generate commitments for contributions of reduced-price or donated labor and materials to build a system at a rural church.
Right now the church is “served” by a pipe that discharges into sinkholes. He hopes to install a drip irrigation system on a site with challenging soils and other constraints, including gravesites that need to be worked around.
If ultimately completed this spring, this will be one more in a long line of generous contributions to projects that make a real difference for families and communities, even if they’re not filmed by TV crews and surrounded by hoopla. Here’s a hat tip to all the onsite professionals who make these projects happen.
