 Fresh water is part of a never-ending water cycle. What we flush, we drink. Properly maintaining your home aeration sewage treatment system helps ensure a clean water supply for you now and for the future. When aerobic home aeration waste systems work properly, they discharge high-quality water. But when systems break down or are misused, they can discharge unhealthy and dangerous substances. Regular inspection and maintenance of home aeration sewage systems can assure that the hundreds of gallons of wastewater we discharge from our homes every day is clean and free of pollutants. Nature cleans waste from water in a series of steps. Large, heavy pieces settle to the bottom of lakes or slow-flowing rivers and streams. Bacteria convert organic waste into carbon dioxide and water. Water is naturally filtered by sand and gravel beds. Evaporation and precipitation play a part, as do plants absorbing water into their root systems. Home aeration systems use these steps in a controlled environment where the water treatment can be monitored. This controlled environment exists in the system buried in your yard. Let's look at how these systems work. There are different types of aerobic home aeration sewage treatment systems, but they all work using the same series of processes. First, wastewater exits your home through plumbing and gathers in the first chamber called the primary clarifier. Here, heavy solids settle to the bottom while grease and light solids float to the top. The relatively clear water, called effluent, between the floating scum and the sinking sludge flows into the aeration chamber. In the aeration chamber, air is blown into the water, providing oxygen to bacteria that live in the system. The bacteria convert the oxygen and waste into harmless carbon dioxide and clean water. The air is jetted in cycles, so the water has a chance to settle occasionally. Any solids in the chamber settle out and the effluent flows into the final clarifier. In the final clarifier, any remaining solids flow into the aeration chamber. Treated water may then be discharged directly to the surface or into a leach field or into an upflow filter. In an upflow filter, effluent is piped under a bed of sand or gravel and forced by pressure to flow up through the gravel bed. Any solids in the water are trapped by the gravel and the clarified filtered water leaves the system. Some systems also use a chlorinator where the water leaves the system. Discharge water flows over solid chlorine tablets to disinfect the water. Your system is not working properly and needs to be repaired. If it smells bad, if you don't hear the blower motor running, if you don't see bubbles when the blower is running, or you see black or gray water or solids around the discharge area. In addition to these casual observations, you should schedule regular detailed maintenance checks. Check the condition and accessibility of the lids to the chambers. Tracked lids may need to be replaced. Compare the levels of sludge, water, and scum in the primary clarifier. The scum layer and sludge layer combined should not exceed the depth of the clearer water. If the sludge is deeper than about one foot or the scum thicker than six inches, it is time to pump out your system. The solid settling in the first two chambers will need to be pumped out by a licensed waste hauler every three to five years. More often, if your household puts a heavy load on your system. Check the condition of baffles between chambers. Also, be sure the elbow pipe on the surface skimmer is in place and working. The water level should be halfway up in the elbow and at the bottom of the outlet. If it's higher, the system is not draining properly. Be sure the timer is working and set to appropriate on-off cycles. A good rule of thumb is eight to ten minutes of run time per half hour. Watch and listen as Becky, a trained inspector, shows how to manually trip the switch to ensure that it is working. When you come out to check and if the motor is not running, you can trip the timer to get it started. First of all, make sure the timer is working. A little gear should be running. What you do is you push down here on this little bar. You pull out on this and that should trip the motor. There we go. Be sure the blower motor is working effectively and the air filter is clean and in good condition. Older motors may need periodic oiling. Look for signs of rodent activity or insect nests. Clean out weeds and leaves. These parts of a jet system are easily damaged. Use caution if you service it yourself. Other systems use diffused air and blow the air manually through the blower, through that air pipe. This one here, the whole stainless steel shaft turns and spins, draws air in through the intake and brings it down and out the aspirator. The water bubbles and churns when the motor is running and there should not be any strong odor. Check the color of the water in the second chamber. It should be a chocolate brown, not gray. Assure that the condition of the up-flow filter is good and free of sludge. The up-flow filter should bubble when the aeration blower runs. The up-flow filter should be backwashed when your system is pumped out. Be sure to wash your hands carefully after working in and around your sewage treatment system. Consider purchasing a service contract from a local contractor. They'll provide regular detailed inspections and maintenance of your system. Contact your local health department for a list of licensed contractors in your area. Too much wastewater flowing into the system too quickly can force water and waste through the system before it can be fully treated. Also, heavy use of the system can require the system to be pumped more frequently. Here are some tips you can use to reduce the load on your system and allow it to function most efficiently. Spread laundry throughout the week. A typical wash load uses about 40 gallons of water. Five loads of laundry in one day would discharge 200 gallons, almost half the design capacity of many home aeration systems. Reduce water use in other ways by taking shorter showers, using flow restrictors on faucets and shower heads, and by using low flush toilets. Don't use a garbage disposal. Ground up food solids and coffee grounds will settle in and fill up the primary clarifier, requiring more frequent pumping. Don't flush trash. Cloth and paper products other than toilet tissue, rubber and plastic items, even those labeled flushable, and cat litter won't break down. At best, they'll fill up the chambers. At worst, they'll clog the system or cause a part to break. Don't pour oils, poisons, pesticides, chemicals, paint, or large quantities of bleach down your drains. These substances are not biodegradable, and some can even kill the good bacteria in your system, stopping the natural breakdown of other waste. Your aeration sewage treatment system discharges water where you live. If the treatment is not effective, contaminated water can re-enter the fresh water supply of your neighbor, or even your own. Remember, what we flush, we drink. Poorly treated human waste can carry such as dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, salmonella, and other intestinal diseases and parasites. Over longer periods of ineffective treatment, water in streams, rivers and lakes can suffer from decreased oxygen levels, excessive algae growth, increased nitrates and ammonia levels, all of which can destroy the water's capacity to support aquatic life. Improperly treated waste can cause environmental nuisances as well, causing ugly discharge areas and offensive odors, which decrease quality of life and may even depress your property value. It's easy to take water for granted. We turn the handle, and there it is. We pour it in the drain, and it's gone. But as we've seen, we don't really consume water. We just borrow it for a while. Water quality affects our homes, our businesses, our recreation, our children, our pets, our livestock, and our natural environment. When you use water, use it wisely. When you give it back to nature, give it back clean. Your local health department employs registered sanitarians who can help you determine what kind of system you have, how it works, and whether it's working properly. The sanitarians can also supply you with a list of licensed maintenance contractors in your area. The first step to maintaining a clean and healthy water supply is simply to think about it.