Don't Fall In!

Today I heard a cautionary tale which may be useful to pass on as next year we will be decommissioning our septic tanks. I will not reveal names involved or the location, other than to say it happened in this county of San Luis Obispo—recently, to a person who bought an as-is home. It happened at a home using a septic tank, although, apparently, it can happen at homes where a septic tank has been abandoned improperly after a sewer hook-up.

(Note: Many in Los Osos have not pumped their their tanks in 30+ years. We have not pumped ours in 10, and actually don't have much of an idea as to where it is located. We have a suspiciously verdant couple of trees that we have never watered, so.....)

Anyway, this person was digging around in the yard to find the septic tank on this recently purchased house. He/she had an idea where it was and was removing soil over what he/she thought was the concrete lid. Chopping about 6" into a pile of dirt however, down the shovel suddenly shot; he/she caught it, fortunately, in the nick of time. The "lid" to the septic tank it turned out, was made out of corrugated fiberglass panels, the concrete lid—gone. The person quickly exited the lid area, grateful that it had not collapsed.

(I am guessing as to the color of those panels, but see-through was just too ghastly to contemplate.)

SO.....when decommissioning time comes, and you might want to be doing some of the digging yourself, WATCH OUT, unless you already know what is down there. Septic tanks can KILL.

For further reading, follow this link:

http://www.septicprotector.com/deathpage.html