Most houses built in rural areas have a septic system that is used to dispose of solids and liquids that are flushed down a toilet, drained out of a sink, washing machine, bathtub, etc.

A septic tank is different than a cesspool in that a cesspool doesn’t have leech lines for the liquid contents to be distributed to a large area to soak into the ground.

Cesspools are simply holes or pits in the ground and might need to be pumped out occasionally, and any leeching is done through the walls of a cesspool.

A septic tank has 2 or more chambers separated by baffles that are either open at the top or open at the bottom. Everything from the house flows into the first tank chamber where anything that floats stays on top and the liquids can flow under the baffle into the second chamber.

Eventually the floaters will sink to the common floor of the first and second chambers where they will further decompose. Again, the liquids flow freely over the second baffle into a third chamber where any solids that have survived thus far will sink to the bottom and stay there.

At the top of the last chamber is the opening to the leech field. Liquids flow into the leech lines and can travel quite a ways as they are dissipated to soak into the ground.

Over time the septic tank will fill up with enough solids that the leech lines will no longer be fed and the sewer system will back up into the house. This is when a septic tank pump truck will need to pump out the tank and the process starts over again.

What does this have to do with mormonism? Nothing really. I was just sitting here wondering where all of my tithing dollars went after I gave them to the mormon church. Perhaps the church has leech lines that need to be fed? I dunno.

I'd say you know your shit.

I'm FLUSHED to read & understand your post on this Noble Thread, MS. Sunbeep!!

All I know about them is that Hubs said NO. NO. NO AND HELL NO. There were some nice properties I was interested in and he shut that right down.

My brother and SIL have had septic tanks for most of their married life, in two separate houses. A septic tank represents yet another maintenance headache. Their yard would get torn up every time it needed to be emptied. There were times that you had to be very careful while using the facilities because the tank was throwing a tantrum. And then there is the adventure of eventually replacing the tank.

Septic tanks, along with wells, do open up a lot of housing options, and they are very common here in Maryland where I live. But you had better have a big maintenance budget for your home.

We've had a septic tank for decades in Idaho Falls. Every so many years, we have the septic tank guy come clean and inspect the baffles and everything. We never had any problems. I thought it was kind of interesting (since I'm often full of crap myself). The septic tank guy must have thought I was weird asking so many questions. He patiently explained a ton of stuff about them.

Our water well was more of a concern. The water in that area was warm and hard, so the pumps wore out faster than some. All in all, it was nice having property away from crowds. It's definitely a tradeoff.

LD$ Inc. is like a septic tank.
All the really big chunks rise to the top.

Messy should give his views on this, I think he's as much a SHIT EXPERT as anyone else here...

just sayin'

I was going to add that many septic tanks are commonly mistaken for LDS temples. No matter how many times you go inside a temple, it's always the same crap floating around.