By Keith Kirkman
Special to CONTRACTOR
I HAVE BEEN a plumber for 30-plus years in Darke County, Ohio, and I have pumped septic tanks for the last 25 years. I have all six state of Ohio licenses and believe that we are liable to follow the code whether the customer likes it or not!
According to the International Plumbing Code commentary, a plumbing code is “intended to be adopted as a legal enforceable document to safeguard the health, safety, property and public welfare.” As doctors must contact the health department when they find a disease is spreading, we must do the same by code for each of our customers.
I am writing in reference to a column in CONTRACTOR written by Dave Yates on septic systems (“House traps solve septic odor problems,” September 2003, pg. 50; a follow-up letter to the editor, “Septic odors require preventive action,” was published in January, pg. 23). Dave Yates is probably a very good professional plumber, but I believe he missed the boat here!
When he put an inline trap in that line to the house, I believe, he made a big mistake. I realize that codes are different in many states and that Dave may be allowed to do what he did in his state, but in my opinion he goofed.
When you put a trap in a house sewer line to stop an odor problem, you are covering up a symptom of a septic tank system problem. I would never do that and would flat out walk off the job if someone told me to do that!
I cannot keep my mouth shut when Dave tells people in a national publication that this is a solution to an odor problem when it is really hiding a much bigger problem. In our area, his approach is illegal, and I don’t understand how in Dave’s area it isn’t.
To me Dave has created a problem for that customer because now when that customer’s septic tank gets worse and starts smelling again, he will never know it. So he will never know there is a problem until it is way beyond fixing reasonably and cheaply without total replacement of the septic tank system, leach-bed system or both!
A septic tank that is working properly has very little odor. The fact that an odor is coming out of this vent would tell a qualified septic tank inspector that something is wrong with the septic tank. You have to look at where the odor is coming from.
House traps do not solve odor symptoms. They only cover up septic odor problems. Septic odor symptoms do not require preventive action. They require diagnostic action!
If Dave’s customer had a septic odor problem it was because something was wrong with the bacterial action in that septic system. Odor is caused by the lack of bacteria. If you don’t have the correct amount of bacteria in a septic system, you will have terrible odors. Something is killing the bacteria in this septic system, or maybe the problem started when the system was installed.
A septic tank must have oxygen to feed the bacteria to keep them working correctly — living, multiplying and digesting the sewage. Anaerobic and aerobic are the two major types of bacteria in a septic system. In either an aeration system or a leach bed on a regular septic system, aerobic bacteria are the majority of the bacteria and they work much faster than anaerobic bacteria. Aerobic bacteria in a regular septic tank work on the crust on the top, usually on the topside. They are able to do that because of the air coming from the vent in the house!
That vent through the roof of the house lets air into the septic system, stabilizing the septic tank. It keeps the oxygen from becoming stale and releasing the carbon dioxide created by the bacteria! The oxygen in the vent keeps it fresh, equalized and not pressurized. It also allows the smelly byproducts of the bacterial action to escape from the septic tank.
Dave’s solution took away the air from the vent at the house to that septic tank. So unless he put a vent source to that septic tank, how in the world does it get oxygen?
Dave also states in his column that the yard vent is sticking up 12 in. from the ground. If he is sticking that vent 12 in. from the ground as shown in the drawing on pg. 70 of the September 2003 issue, what is going to happen when the homeowner breaks it off with a lawn mower or whatever else?
Another question is how is he going to keep this vent from freezing? Our code mentions frost closure. How is the mushroom vent shown in the drawing to be a 3-in. or larger opening and, if it’s not, will the vent probably frost shut?
I see another problem in that I can’t run my eel through most of these 4-in. inline traps because the eel would get stuck. I would have to downgrade my eel service in order to accommodate for the inline trap. If I have to use a smaller eel than I use now, I am not doing the best job for my customer.
We are somewhat the construction police, because we’re the first defense the customer has to save him from himself or his equipment failure. We are like the doctor. We are there to diagnose what is wrong, and at least try to fix it.
Keith Kirkman is president of Kirkman’s Plumbing & Eel Service in Greenville, Ohio.