Too much laundry and The Husband......

Dear Jim,

I saw you on a TV program about 3 years ago talking about septic systems. What really caught my attention was when you were talking about the damages washing machines do to a system. I have 4 children (5 if you count my husband) and do lots of laundry. I got one of the filters for the washing machine but my husband made me send it back saying it was a gimmick. Last year our 5 year old septic failed. We had brown, stinky water in the yard and basement. I did a search on the net and found your webpage. You gave me several suggestions to try but my husband would not even listen. Instead he went to the home center and started buying chemicals. For months he kept buying and pouring this stuff into the toilets. It did not work.

Eventually the environmental officer learned of our failing system (I think the neighbors complained) and told us to have a new one put in right away. Because we have a small yard we have been forced to put in an elevated sand mound system. The cost about $13,000. When I asked the septic man what caused our system to fail he said because we do too much laundry and the lint plugged it up. He even showed us how this stuff was coating everything. I gave my husband a big "I told you so!" but he still won’t allow me to put on a filter. This really set us back and I don’t want to replace another septic system. What can I do to protect this system? N. J.

divorce your husband...or take him out to the backyard and rub his face in the old system (like a puppy that just had an accident on the carpet). maybe he will get the picture because you are right, lint from the washing machine is one of the big reasons systems fail. i hate to say this but your situation is not unique. a husband or wife will want to take care of their system but the spouse opposes many of the steps they want to implement. men seem to be entrenched in the old days and ways...if the toilet flushes it must be working and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. and anytime someone suggests something like pumping the tank or putting filters on the system they figure, "You are just trying to get me to spend money so it has to be a scam" and say no dice. women don’t want a filter in their laundry room because it doesn’t match the decor or don’t want to talk about septic systems in the first place, "That’s my husband’s area...talk to him about it."

Americans in particular are an innovative lot and are known for looking for short cuts. go back a few generations...in the 20’s and 30’s people didn’t have a lot of extra income and you had to make do with what you had...sometimes just putting one meal a day on the table was a major accomplishment so you didn’t waste money on frivolous items and you fixed what you had yourself. with the prosperity of the 50’s and 60’s, we got to the convenience stage...automatic washers, toasters, microwaves, dishwashers, etc. and we expect things to be easy...and when it came to the septic systems, no one wanted to be bothered. But this is why there are so many problems with failing septic systems, very few people have bothered to learn about them.

however the news is not all bad. more people are starting to realize that a septic system is part of the home and needs to be taken care of. this is why many of the systems going in over the last 10-20 years have the potential to last indefinitely...we have learned how to design systems better and many people are getting smart, they are learning and willing to take care of their systems. the fact is, if you want your system to last, you don’t overload it with water and chemicals, you don’t put things down the drain that are non-biodegradable, you have the tank pumped and inspected on a regular schedule and you protect the soil from getting plugged-up with solids by using filters to keep these solids out of the drainfield. these things are so obvious that most people slap their foreheads and say they should have thought of this themselves...but there will always be the obstinate, contumacious, stubborn, implacable, inexorable, intractable, reckless, pinheads that think they have all the answers and will not listen to anybody. of course these are the same people that smoke 3 packs of Lucky Strikes a day for 30 years then say the doctors are full of it when they tell them they have lung cancer.

Per your problem/solution: start taking your laundry to a laundromat, or get ready to tell your husband "I told you so" again, or put a filter on the washing machine and tell him "tough"...you are going to be needing it more than ever because you are going to be washing more bedding because one of you is going to be sleeping on the couch until he starts treating you as an equal partner (capable of making rational decisions that affect the household) instead of a domestic servant that needs his permission to make a purchase. Good luck...Jim PS. The last i heard women had the right to vote and everything.