Hurricanes Helene and Milton left many homeowners with flooded septic tanks. To ensure your system is prepared for future storms, a University of Florida scientist has suggestions for you.
“If you are one of the homeowners with a flooded septic system, it is likely not functioning properly and should be checked by a professional as soon as possible,” said Mary Lusk, assistant professor of soil, water and ecosystem sciences at UF/IFAS. “If your system has not been flooded, you can take time for an inspection now to ensure your system is in good working order before next year’s hurricane season begins.”
About 2 million Florida homes — or about 30% of the state's residents — rely on septic tanks for wastewater treatment, Lusk said. When flooded, they can fill with dirt and need to be professionally cleaned.
Become a member
Mainstreet has no paywall, but public journalism is not free. Join your neighbors in making this important work possible.
“You can’t really prevent flood damage,” said Lusk, author of a new Ask IFAS document on septic tanks. “If it happens, it happens. However, take time during the hurricane offseason to ensure your system is pumped and checked regularly. We recommend doing this approximately every three years.”
Here are two more tips for the future:
- If a hurricane is predicted next year, reduce water use in your home as much as possible in the days leading up to the storm. This reduces the amount of waste your system has to process during the vulnerable period when ground flooding can occur.
- Purchase a makeshift toilet or toilet seat that you can use on a bucket so that you are prepared in case your property floods and you no longer need to use your household toilet. These can often be found in the camping section of sporting goods stores or online retailers.
Sewage treatment plants consist of two parts: a septic tank and a drain field.
Flooding associated with hurricanes can reduce the depth of unsaturated soil in a drainage field, thereby preventing the sewer system from functioning properly, Lusk said.
“Wastewater treatment plants rely on unsaturated soils to safely remove germs from human waste, and a flooded property with a wastewater treatment plant means a property is failing to fulfill its most important role in human health,” she said.
As Milton raced through Florida, with more than a foot of rain falling in some places, some septic tanks became ineffective.
Flooding from a hurricane can mean a system is unusable for days or weeks while the homeowner waits for floodwaters to go away, said Lusk, a faculty member at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center.
“This makes it very difficult to live a normal daily life as the homeowner has to find other ways to dispose of household wastewater, including toilet waste,” she said.
If flooding still occurs on your property, consider limiting household water use as much as possible and considering portable toilets or building makeshift toilets out of buckets so you're not adding new material to the system, she said.
Comments are closed.