Septic Care
This page is for Master Watershed Stewards considering a Behavior Change campaign in their communities. To learn more about what you can do as an individual click here.
In the US, more than 4 billion gallons of wastewater is dispersed below the ground every day. Untreated sewage leaking from a septic system can cause nitrogen, phosphorous and bacterial pollution of local waterways, negatively impacting the health of humans and aquatic organisims that use the water. Leaking septic systems can also affect drinking water. Maintaining septic systems, if your community has them, is extremely important. If your septic system breaks, it can cost $3000- $7000 to repair. For more information: http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/septic/why-maintain.cfm
Behavior: Properly maintain and upgrade septic system (Note that this behavior involves many sub-behaviors. It may be helpful to choose one of the sub-behaviors listed below.).
Some of the common perceived or actual barriers to maintaining and upgrading septic systems include:
Some of the common perceived or actual benefits to maintaining and upgrading septic systems include:
1. I can eliminate many of the problems associated with a failing system:
a. undesirable and offensive smells
b. mosquito breeding ground
c. costly cleanup of damage caused by sewage backup
d. condemnation of the house, potentially resulting in eviction
e. contaminated waterways (human and environmental health problems associated with them)
f. contaminated drinking water
2. It costs a lot less to maintain rather than repair.
See what others have done!
Tools:
National Environmental Service Center Publications
Clear Choices Clean Water Online Pledge