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A Surprising History of Septic and Where It All Goes
Humanity has spent thousands of years trying to figure out what to do after we do our business.
Today, you push a handle.
There’s a whoosh.
Everything disappears.
And, ideally, you don't think about it again.
That last part is important.
Because for most of human history, making our waste conveniently disappear was not nearly so simple.
There were pits. There were pots. There were cesspools. There were open drains. There were entire rivers that became sewers.
At one point, the smell of human waste became so bad that it helped motivate the British Parliament to approve a massive new sewer system.
Seriously.
Pooping is nothing new, but how we dealt and continue to deal with it has seen many changes. We'd like to take you on a brief journey through several thousand years of humans asking the same important question:
Where is all this waste supposed to go?
Chapter 1: Humans Discover That Poop Has to Go Somewhere
Imagine you're living several thousand years ago.
There is no plumber.
There is no pump truck.
There is definitely no online form to schedule your next septic pump by email like today (Schedule Septic Pumping here).
You've got people.
You've got waste.
And eventually somebody realizes that having the two occupy the same space is less than ideal, but outright dangerous.
Ancient civilizations began developing surprisingly sophisticated solutions.
Early drainage works existed in Mesopotamia thousands of years ago, and communities of the Indus Valley developed organized drainage and sanitation infrastructure.
At Mohenjo-daro (present-day Pakistan), homes and streets were built alongside an elaborate network of drains, wells and soak pits.
Yes.
People more than 4,000 years ago were already thinking about where wastewater should go. So if you've been ignoring that suspiciously slow drain for six months, ancient civilization would like a word.
Want to explore the real archaeology?
[UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro]
Chapter 2: The Romans Get Fancy
Eventually, the Romans entered into the war of water and waste management.
And infrastructure was their defense.
Aqueducts brought water into communities. Drains and sewers carried water and waste away. Public latrines allowed groups of people to take care of business together.
And yes, we said together.
Privacy standards have improved considerably.
Roman sanitation wasn't equivalent to what we have today—waste might enter a sewer, a cesspit or be managed another way—but these systems showed just how important water and waste infrastructure had become to growing cities.
Humans were making progress.
However, history was about to demonstrate that progress isn't always a straight line.
Chapter 3: Welcome Back, Cesspool
After the decline of the Western Roman Empire, many large-scale sewer and water systems in Europe deteriorated or disappeared from use.
For centuries, pits, privies and cesspools remained common ways to handle human waste.
A cesspool was essentially an underground chamber for sewage. Solids accumulated. Depending on how it was constructed, liquids could seep into the surrounding ground.
Occasionally, somebody had to empty it.
We will allow you a moment to appreciate your current occupation.
WAIT. IS A CESSPOOL JUST AN OLD SEPTIC TANK?
Nope.
A modern conventional septic system uses a watertight septic tank followed by a separate treatment and dispersal area, commonly called a drain field.
The tank is only one part of the system.
That's why saying “I have a septic tank” doesn't necessarily tell us everything about what's buried on your property.
[EPA — How Septic Systems Work]
Chapter 4: Things Get Really,
Really Gross
Fast-forward to the 1800s.
Cities are growing.
Flush toilets are becoming more common.
Wastewater is going into drains.
Wonderful!
Except there is one tiny problem:
Where are the drains going?
In London, much of the answer was:
The River Thames.
By the summer of 1858, hot and dry conditions combined with enormous amounts of sewage and other waste to create an event history remembers by a wonderfully understated name:
THE GREAT STINK.
This was not merely “the river smells a little funky.”
The smell became so intense that it interfered with work at the Houses of Parliament.
Attempts were made to fight the odor by treating curtains facing the Thames with chloride of lime.
Imagine an entire government basically hanging air fresheners because the river outside smells like sewage.
Except the air freshener isn't working.
And the river is still full of sewage.
The crisis helped force action. Parliament provided the authority and financing that allowed London's massive sewer project to proceed under engineer Joseph Bazalgette.
Sometimes governments are moved by public pressure.
Sometimes they're moved by economics.
And apparently, sometimes they're moved because everyone in Parliament can smell the poop.
Read more about London's Great Stink and the development of its sewer system:
[Historical resource: The Sanitary Evolution of London]
Chapter 5: Meanwhile, France Has an Idea
While cities were trying to figure out what to do with enormous amounts of sewage, another important development was taking place in France.
Enter Louis Mouras.
During the 19th century, Mouras developed an underground wastewater-treatment apparatus sometimes called the Mouras Automatic Scavenger or Fosse Mouras.
Wastewater entered an enclosed tank.
Heavier material could settle.
Organic material decomposed.
Liquid left through an outlet.
Sound familiar?
It should.
The basic concept is recognizable in the septic tanks we use today.
Mouras later worked with Abbé Moigno, a French priest, scientist and writer who became interested in the system. Mouras received a French patent in 1881 and a U.S. patent in 1882.
And thus humanity had discovered something remarkable:
Maybe we could let biology do some of the dirty work.
BUT WAIT. THERE'S A STORY.
If you search the history of the septic tank long enough, you'll encounter a fantastic tale.
According to the often-repeated story, Mouras was tired of making trips to an outdoor privy. He created his underground system and, years later, opened it expecting to find an enormous accumulation of waste.
Instead, supposedly, much of it had decomposed.
It's a wonderful story.
There's just one problem.
We couldn't find strong primary historical documentation proving those colorful details.
The Mouras apparatus?
Real.
The patents?
Real.
His place in septic history?
Real.
The dramatic privy story?
We're putting that one in the category of:
“Maybe. But no one truly knows.”
Wastewater history is already weird enough without making things up.
Chapter 6: No One Invented “The Septic System” in One Afternoon
Mouras's tank was important.
But he didn't pull today's complete septic system out of the ground in 1881.
Other engineers continued experimenting.
In England during the 1890s, Donald Cameron developed a septic treatment process at Exeter that incorporated additional treatment after wastewater left the tank.
Over time, engineers learned more about:
Settling.
Decomposition.
Filtration.
Bacteria.
Soil.
Groundwater.
And one particularly important realization:
The tank is only the beginning.
Liquid leaving a septic tank still requires treatment.
That is where the drainfield and soil become extremely important.
Chapter 7: America Gets Septic
By the late 19th century, septic treatment technology had reached the United States.
And America had a pretty obvious reason to like it.
We're big.
Really big.
Connecting every rural home to a municipal sewer treatment plant isn't exactly practical.
Onsite wastewater systems allowed homes and communities outside municipal sewer networks to manage wastewater on or near the property where it was produced.
Septic-system use expanded significantly during the 20th century as rural and suburban housing grew.
And it never went away.
Today, more than one in five U.S. households relies on an individual septic system or small community cluster system for wastewater treatment, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
That's millions of households depending on something buried underground that most of us rarely think about.
Until it stops working.
Then we think about it a lot.
Chapter 8: Alaska Says, “That's Cute. Now Add Winter.”
And eventually our wastewater story makes its way north.
Far north.
Onsite wastewater systems are widely used throughout Alaska. But Alaska likes making simple things interesting.
We've got:
Cold.
Frost.
Interesting soils.
Groundwater.
Remote properties.
Challenging access.
And occasionally a sewer or drain line that decides January is the perfect time to stop cooperating.
A conventional septic system may work perfectly well on one property while the conditions on another require an engineered or alternative system.
That's why there isn't one universal answer to:
“What kind of septic system should I have?”
or:
“How often should I pump it?”
or even:
“What exactly is buried in my yard?”
Your system matters.
Your property matters.
And in Alaska, your environment definitely matters.
For the official Alaska information:
With Alaska's vast size and lack of infrastructure the State faces many issues that have chilling affects on people and the environment.
There are villages that lack basic water and sewage facilities. As of December 2021, the town of Teller disposes its residents sewage at the "honey bucket lagoon".
"there is a dumpsite about 5 miles from town for plastic bags filled with urine and feces, many of them punctured and leaking" -Center for Health Journalism
In Kotlik, a village of 450 people experienced an outbreak of meningitis in the 1990's. Roughly 80 people fell ill from the disease which is spread by contact with human waste.
"the outbreak occurred after sewage oozed out of full underground pits and into muddy yards where children played" -Anchorage Daily News
Residents of Alaska have always had to adapt to the environment. Sometimes it takes serious viral outbreaks and contaminated drink water to get "Alaska's Parliament" to act.
Chapter 9: After 6,000 Years, We Are Still Struggling
Humanity developed drainage.
We built sewers.
We discovered biological wastewater treatment.
We learned how soil treats effluent.
We engineered modern onsite wastewater systems.
We developed pumps, controls, high-pressure jetting equipment and cameras capable of traveling through sewer pipes.
And after thousands of years of engineering progress, our systems are crippled by a simple clog.
Some things never change.
Fortunately, our ability to figure out why it's clogged has improved considerably.
Modern drain-clearing equipment can mechanically clear obstructions or use high-pressure water to remove buildup.
Video inspection equipment can provide a view inside a line when recurring clogs, damage or other problems need investigation.
Which is significantly more sophisticated than standing over the drain and saying:
“Try flushing it again.”
Please don't do that.
Already past the “maybe it'll fix itself” stage?
[Schedule a Drain Clearing →JRS Septic]
Chapter 10: The One Thing History Hasn't Fixed
After thousands of years of innovation, we regret to inform you that somebody still has to deal with the solids.
A septic tank does not magically make everything disappear.
Microorganisms break down some organic material, but solids and scum still accumulate over time.
Eventually, they need to be removed.
That's where septic pumping comes in.
EPA guidance says household septic tanks are typically pumped every three to five years, but actual frequency depends on factors including household size, wastewater generation, tank size and the amount of solids in the tank.
So no, there isn't one magic pumping schedule for every house.
And no, waiting until sewage comes back up through the drain is not a particularly good maintenance strategy.
Think yours might be due?
So What Have We Learned?
For thousands of years, humans have been trying to solve one surprisingly complicated problem:
How do we safely make this stuff go away?
Ancient civilizations built drains.
The Romans built enormous infrastructure.
Later generations dug pits and cesspools.
Victorian London accidentally turned the Thames into something so foul that the smell helped get Parliament moving.
Mouras experimented with underground treatment.
Engineers learned how bacteria and soil could help.
Modern systems became increasingly sophisticated.
And Alaska came along and added freezing temperatures just to keep things interesting.
The technology has changed enormously.
The objective really hasn't:
Keep wastewater moving in the right direction.
Preferably away from you.
Curious Now?
Good.
Knowing a little about what's happening underground can make owning a septic system considerably less mysterious.
Want to Go Down the Rabbit Hole?
We did.
Here are some of the government, historical and scholarly resources behind this story if you'd like to explore further.
Ancient People Were Surprisingly Good at This
UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro
Explore the planning, wells, drains and sewage-disposal infrastructure of one of the world's great ancient cities.The Historical Development of Sewers Worldwide — Sustainability
A scholarly journey through thousands of years of drainage and sewer development— Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley through modern wastewater infrastructure
Yes, The Great Stink Was Real
The Sanitary Evolution of London — Henry Lorenzo Jephson
A historical account of London's sanitation problems and the development of its sewer infrastructure.
An accessible historical overview that includes London's 1858 Great Stink, Parliament's attempts to fight the smell and the subsequent sewer works.
Federal, State and non-profit Information on wastewater management and septic systems.
An introduction to decentralized wastewater treatment and septic-system use in the United States
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Types of Septic Systems
Clean Water Action — How Does a Septic System Work
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — How to Care for Your Septic System
And Because This Is Alaska...
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation — Onsite Wastewater Systems
Municipality of Anchorage — Owners Guide for Water Wells and Septic Systems
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation — Maintaining Your Septic System