7 signs your septic pit or treatment plant is failing

1. Bad smells around the house or garden

A sewage smell near the pit, the manholes or inside the bathrooms usually means the system is full, leaking, or no longer treating the waste. A well-working treatment plant is sealed and should not smell.

2. Slow drains and gurgling pipes

When sinks, showers and toilets drain slowly, or the pipes gurgle, the water has nowhere to go. It often means the pit is full or the pipe to the plant is blocked.

3. Sewage backing up into the house

Dirty water coming back up through the shower drain or the toilet is the most urgent sign. Stop using water as much as possible and call for help the same day.

4. Wet ground or unusually green grass

Soggy soil, puddles that do not dry, or a patch of grass that is greener than the rest above or near the pit show that untreated wastewater is reaching the surface.

5. The pit fills faster than before

If you now call the tanker more often than you used to, the soil around the pit is clogged or the pit is too small for the people using it. This does not fix itself, and the cost adds up every year.

6. Dark, cloudy or smelly water leaving the plant

Water leaving a treatment plant should be clear and almost odourless. Dark, grey or cloudy water means the bacteria are not doing their job, often because the plant is overloaded, the sludge has not been removed, or chemicals have killed the bacteria.

7. A blower or pump that has stopped

In an aerobic plant, the blower keeps the bacteria alive. If it is silent, tripping the electricity, or an alarm is on, the plant stops treating within days and starts to smell.

What to do now

• Use less water until the problem is checked: fewer laundry loads, shorter showers.
• Do not pour bleach, strong chemicals or cooking oil down the drains; they kill the bacteria a plant needs.
• Keep children and animals away from any overflow.
• Take photos of the pit or plant, the manholes and any water around them.

How we can help

Whatever the brand or age of your plant, send us the photos and tell us what is going wrong. An engineer will review them and call you with the cause and the fix. If you still have a septic pit, ask us about replacing it with a treatment plant: read septic pit or treatment plant: which is right for you.