Septic Systems in Sooke

What the system on your property is for

Any home or building that is not connected to a municipal or city sewage system needs a safe method of treating and discharging sewage. That is what is buried in your yard. The health authority's job is to ensure all buildings with indoor plumbing have a sewerage system that is in compliance with the Sewerage System Regulation.

Who the rules come from

The Ministry of Health administers the regulation that governs septic design, construction and maintenance. Island Health receives what gets filed under it and keeps the record afterwards. The regional district runs a public programme for septic owners, and it calls that programme Be Septic Savvy: Protect, Inspect, Maintain.

Why we keep going on about maintenance

Not maintaining a sewerage system is one of the leading causes of premature system failure. A system built under the regulation comes with a plan written by whoever designed it, and following that plan is what keeps a field working. Where a system predates all of that and no plan came with the house, an authorized maintenance provider can write one.

What you get handed at the end of a job

A new build hands you an as-built diagram, a maintenance plan and the certification that lets the system be used at all. Keep them somewhere you can find them again, because we will ask for them the next time we are out. A pump-out leaves you with an account of what the tank looked like when the lid came off.

What is free and what is not

The drive out and the look are free, and so is the price that follows them. Design work sits on the other side of that line: test pits, a soil reading, and then the drawing that comes out of them, each carrying its own price. We say which side of the line you are on before either one starts.

What should never go down the toilet?

The regional district puts it plainly: "Flush only the Three Ps: Pee, Poo, and (toilet) Paper." Wipes, dental floss, condoms, sanitary products, facial tissues and contact lenses all belong in the garbage. Medications go back to a pharmacy rather than down a drain.

The same goes for feminine hygiene products, paper towels and tissues, diapers and cotton swabs. Products sold as flushable, wipes among them, do not break down the way toilet paper does, and they can clog pipes and damage a system. We pull them out of tanks, and they come out looking much the way they went in.

What should never go down the sink?

The sink has its own list. Keep out fats, oils and grease, food scraps such as coffee grounds, rice and pasta, eggshells, paint, solvents and chemicals, and excess cleaning products. Keep them out of a garburator as well.

Fats, oils and grease go down as a liquid, then cool and harden inside the pipe. That is how a line blocks. Put those down the drain and you can overload a system and disrupt the natural treatment process. We clear blocked lines, and we tell you what was in there.