>> Speaker A: The last thing that I want as a adjective attached to that experience is seepage. I guess it's a noun. My part of speeches have gotten screwed up, but seepage is bad. Welcome back to privy. Privy is a podcast about bathrooms recorded from my home bathroom. I'm your host, hunter hoover, and I love bathrooms. Welcome back, everyone. I'm so glad you're here. Hopefully, uh, you survived pranking season. If you had someone light, uh, turds on fire on your door post,
that's not my fault. Um, I explicitly told everybody not to do so. >> Speaker B: Uh, so hopefully, they heeded my warning there. >> Speaker A: Um, yeah. Oh, shoot. I got a text in a supply drop here. I forgot the seltzer. I'm going to have to grip and rip it here in a minute, so I'm going to need the seltzer for that. You know what I'm saying? As we start a new month here, um, the month of April, I wanted to just review the goals of the
rating and review system. So the primary driving force of the rating and review is in the turn of the new year. >> Speaker B: We wanted to do something to, um. >> Speaker A: Help give back to those in some small way who had gone before us. And as we sat down to try to figure out, well, what do we do for that? Um, what's a worthy cause? And there's plenty of them out there. And I'm not saying that we pick.
>> Speaker B: The only thing that's worthy, but I kind of landed on this notion and. >> Speaker A: Connected to one of our sayings, thanks to, um, Sam Bagenstaff. >> Speaker B: Shout out to Sam, friend of the show here, um, former guest, uh, is. >> Speaker A: That we need to keep pooping in the free world. >> Speaker B: Um, and something that came up was. >> Speaker A: That the free world was not always free. And you've heard me say this at.
>> Speaker B: The end of episodes, but I wanted. >> Speaker A: To hit you at the beginning of this episode. Hopefully, you didn't. >> Speaker B: Just plus ten buy it or plus 30 buy it, or whatever your podcatcher does. Um, to say that, please go leave. >> Speaker A: Us a rating and review, um, for every one of those we get. We are going to be donating some money to the wounded warriors project. >> Speaker B: I think we're up to about, um.
>> Speaker A: Almost $50 total for the year. >> Speaker B: Two, uh, thousand and 23 here, um. >> Speaker A: Which ain't bad, but we could really. >> Speaker B: Get those ratings and reviews. >> Speaker A: If you've already rated or reviewed the. >> Speaker B: Show, share the show and tell others to do so. >> Speaker A: We would love for those to go. >> Speaker B: Up, um, and so we can get. >> Speaker A: Some money sent that way.
>> Speaker B: The other thing that it does is. >> Speaker A: When you rate and review the show, especially if you pick that five star. >> Speaker B: Option, it helps others find the show. >> Speaker A: I don't know how that works, but that's what I'm told. So that's the goal here. >> Speaker B: That's why at the end, I always. >> Speaker A: Hit you with, hey, rate and review and all that stuff. And I might not do that as.
>> Speaker B: Extensively this episode since I did it. >> Speaker A: Here at the front. And I want to note, so my buddy, um, I can't remember. Yeah. So when I was growing up, I used to get, um, these Arizona teas. They were half mango tea, half mango. >> Speaker B: Juice, half iced tea. And I used to get one of. >> Speaker A: Those with my dad. We would go mowing, and when we were done, we would stop at the glacier gateway gas station in Vaughn,
Montana. Uh, and I would get myself a. >> Speaker B: Mango, uh, half and half iced tea from Arizona. >> Speaker A: And sometime around 2011, just kind of. Arizona quit not producing them. Um, but they quit making those as readily available. >> Speaker B: And I thought they were kind of gone forever. And I had resolved myself to that. >> Speaker A: Know, whenever I'm in Winco or whenever I stop into a gas station, I always peek just in the
hopes that maybe I'm going to track one down. And I haven't recently, but a couple. >> Speaker B: Weeks back, we were at an Awana grand prix. >> Speaker A: Uh, if you follow privy on social. >> Speaker B: You saw, um, our race car, uh. >> Speaker A: For the grand prix. Um, we had the toilet on the back representing there. And my buddy Titus, again, another former guest of the show, friend of the. >> Speaker B: Show, Titus comes in with an Arizona.
>> Speaker A: Mango half and half iced tea, and. >> Speaker B: I almost lost my mind. >> Speaker A: It's probably been twelve years since I've. >> Speaker B: Sucked on this sweet nectar. >> Speaker A: Um, I borderline stole this thing from him. >> Speaker B: I essentially sobstoried him until he either. >> Speaker A: Was sick of hearing it and just. >> Speaker B: Gave it to me out of pity.
>> Speaker A: Or out of sheer. I'm done talking to this guy Titus, a rad dude hooked me up with a couple more. >> Speaker B: I've already downed one, but that first. >> Speaker A: One, I'm confident, was outdated. And I'm not saying this to disparage Titus, because it was his drink, and I talked him out of it. But, man, it really flew through me. Um, now, I felt fine, it tasted delicious,
and I would do it again in a heartbeat. But let the record show, uh, I. >> Speaker B: Think it was about two years expired. >> Speaker A: Which then I thought maybe they did discontinue these, and that's why these are so expired now. Uh, but it turns out that's not the case. Arizona is still making this beverage. Uh, the trick is you have to buy it off Amazon. You can't buy it from Arizona directly. >> Speaker B: Or apparently from most gas stations, except.
>> Speaker A: For some tiny little gas station convenience store in, I think, sweet home Montana. Um, or, sorry, sweet home Oregon. Anyway, it's just, you know, they're so I, oh gosh, I went hog wild. >> Speaker B: I'm too deep on these. >> Speaker A: I'm fixing to buy myself a case off Amazon. Just pull the trigger on it. You know what I'm saying? Something that gets brought up a lot when I tell people that I make a podcast about bathrooms is like,
well, what do you talk about? And something that gets talked about a lot when we start talking about bathrooms is how we're going to deal with all that stuff. I mean, nowadays the things people eat truly are heinous and they're the byproducts, and the byproducts are not much better. I ate 18 peeps today. My family and I did a peeps. >> Speaker B: Taste testing of all the seasonal flavor of peeps. >> Speaker A: Um, and I did consume 18 peeps.
>> Speaker B: In about a five minute setting. >> Speaker A: And I did feel absolutely terrible afterwards. >> Speaker B: Um, I'm here to tell you definitively. >> Speaker A: That the tropical peeps are a no fly. I was literally crying. The tropical peeps were so disturbing. But, uh, I think my favorite was either just like Dr. Pepper or cake. The fruit ones are a miss for me, the fruit ones are a miss.
But imagine the types of byproducts I'm making having eaten 18 peeps in one setting. Most folks who live in an urban. >> Speaker B: Area or suburban setting have their bathroom. >> Speaker A: Hooked to a sewer line. And we have talked at length about sewer systems. They're great. Uh, I was listening to a podcast this week. >> Speaker B: They actually covered a topic that we've. >> Speaker A: Already covered on the show, um, the great stink, uh, of London.
And they were talking about how revolutionary the sewer system and, um, Basil get, I think was the guy's name who put that sewer system in and revolutionized. >> Speaker B: And helped deal with cholera in the area. >> Speaker A: Sewers are really good. >> Speaker B: They're great. >> Speaker A: But the other alternative to a sewer system and being hooked to that local infrastructure is to have a septic system often featuring a tank on your property for your toilets.
It has taken us a long time to get to today's septic systems. The septic system technology that we have. >> Speaker B: In place today, it's pretty good. >> Speaker A: Uh, but the history of it, and we're going to look at the history. >> Speaker B: Of septic systems, the history of our septic systems is wrapped up in the. >> Speaker A: History of cess pits.
>> Speaker B: The trouble is, the definition of a. >> Speaker A: Cess pit, besides being my friend's bedroom. >> Speaker B: Every time, dude, every time I went. >> Speaker A: Everybody had this friend growing up where you went over to their house and you go in their room and it's like, do you have a floor? I can't find it. It's missing under the litany of trash and
Legos. So besides that friend's bedroom floor, a cesspit is somewhat like both a specific term, but is also used in a general sense to describe a swath of things. Early reports say that settlements in Mesopotamia, in Ur and Babylon, had a localized cesspit as early as 3500 BC. >> Speaker B: Now, these may have, may have been connected to homes via rudimentary plumbing, via.
>> Speaker A: A brick like, brick lined, essentially trough where they would rinse the water down to help it flow towards this common collecting area. While they still often emptied their skeet into the street, or they would carry it outside the city and dump it. >> Speaker B: Into a common dumping space, the act. >> Speaker A: Of burying it, often dumping it into. >> Speaker B: A pre dug pit closer, was a.
>> Speaker A: Kind of a growing trend. Like as people began to want to go outside the town less, or had less free time to just be digging. >> Speaker B: Had more free time to just dig a pit closer and go in there. >> Speaker A: Um, we see these cess pits start to pop up. >> Speaker B: The reason that, again, that they did. >> Speaker A: This is if you had to spend time carrying the bucket of brown slosh. >> Speaker B: Outside of town, and you know that.
>> Speaker A: The low man on the totem pole is getting that. I don't think I can use that phrase anymore. The low man on the non cultural definitive poll. Um, yeah, we're not going to talk about what that poll is. Uh, but the low man on that, he would be the one that's carrying. >> Speaker B: The sloshy stank outside the city to dump it.
>> Speaker A: And you're wasting work time, you're wasting farming and agricultural time and other such precious time that you could be doing other things. >> Speaker B: As such, the cesspit was likely originally. >> Speaker A: An attempt to bring the dumping closer. >> Speaker B: To the living quarters, thus saving time. >> Speaker A: And we talked about this when we. >> Speaker B: Talked about porta potties.
>> Speaker A: A lot of early Porta potties began to be installed as a way for, um, industries to cut down on the. >> Speaker B: Downtime of people who had to leave. >> Speaker A: The work site to go use a bathroom somewhere. >> Speaker B: They put porta potties in, so that. >> Speaker A: Way these workers wouldn't have to waste all their time walking back and forth. It really shuts down the notion of the boss makes a dollar,
and I make a dime. That's why I had Shaz on company. >> Speaker B: Time, you know what I'm saying? >> Speaker A: But they caught on, and they were trying to install these pits and these porta potties. It's the same idea. It was also likely like, these cesspits were probably also like, you go out of your house, and you look down, it's like, oh, man, tony's eating too much corn again. How do you know? >> Speaker B: Because Tony's turds are just laying in.
>> Speaker A: The street, and you're like, I have got to be seeing Tony's turds less. >> Speaker B: Uh, there has to be a way. >> Speaker A: For me to see Tony's turds less every day. There must be a way. And so they begun to dig cesspits. >> Speaker B: As a means to still. >> Speaker A: Tony still can eat the same amount of corn, but now he dumps it in the cesspit or drops it right in the cesspit via the bungholio itself.
What's interesting is the history of cesspits and septic systems. It kind of skips over the Greeks and the Romans in a huge way. Like, even though the Greeks and the Romans are often touted as having huge advances in sanitation, their advances are more related to plumbing and not septic systems. After the fall of the Roman Empire. >> Speaker B: Humanity went through both irregular dark ages. >> Speaker A: And what is called the sanitary dark Ages.
We've talked about this time period a lot. Um, people were pouring turds in the streets and rivers. >> Speaker B: The care for water system was not. >> Speaker A: Of high value, and as such, disease spread. Cholera was on the rise. Things got so bad, especially throughout Europe, we noted the great stink that eventually the need for change was evident. We can't just keep dumping this stuff in the street, Tony. The river's not an answer either.
The question became, how many people have to contract and die from cholera? And how bad do the streets and rivers have to smell before we make a change? My answer is zero, and not bad at all. Before the big sewer system rehaul in. >> Speaker B: France in the early 15 hundreds, King Francois. >> Speaker A: King Francois ordered homeowners to build cesspools on their properties to begin depositing waste into. Now, I want to note, it
just says waste. So, like, obviously, they're going to pee and poop into these pits, but they would also dump all sorts of crap in there. Broken pottery, broken dishes, trash, animal byproducts, bones. They tossed everything in there. Medical waste. These pits and these pools were truly heinous as the cities grew. And the goal of these cesspools and the cesspits that derived from them, um, was they were designed to cut down on the waste on the surface and.
>> Speaker B: The waste on the rivers. >> Speaker A: Now, there's a couple problems that came from this. Oh, yes. The supply drop has arrived. Oh, what do we got here? Tangerine, la. Oh, yeah. >> Speaker B: As the cities grew, emptying waste into. >> Speaker A: The streets and rivers was too much of a burden. And the time it took to do the chamber pot hallway, I mean, at this point, you're probably just dumping it into a wheelbarrow to get it out of town.
It's not efficient. And so cesspits and cesspools began to be used and dug all throughout Europe in the 15 hundreds. These cess pits were usually cylindrical pits. >> Speaker B: Dug in the ground and were sometimes lined with brickerstone. >> Speaker A: Now, the brickerstone was to help with waste management because it would allow water. >> Speaker B: To pass through the brick and stone. >> Speaker A: Into the ground below. Now, uh.
>> Speaker B: This is a concern, because. >> Speaker A: While this means that they have to be emptied out less often, if Tony's. >> Speaker B: Corn turds are just letting that corn. >> Speaker A: Turd water seep into the groundwater supply, if they have a well nearby, you can see where the cholera friends. >> Speaker B: The cholera friends are just going to be right back. >> Speaker A: We have not moved too far away. Some had a bottom which was open to dirt.
>> Speaker B: Others were lined with a, uh, material. >> Speaker A: That took on a type of soak. >> Speaker B: Pit system in which the materials would. >> Speaker A: Be broken down and the water would seep out. >> Speaker B: This was more common in most, uh, outside of cities. >> Speaker A: Inside of cities, they often had them. >> Speaker B: Completely lined and they didn't soak down as well. >> Speaker A: They actually filled up.
The thing about storage here, um, if any of y'all have an iPhone, you know that your cloud storage is probably full. If you got Google Drive, you know that your Google Drive storage is about full if you've ever bought an Amazon fire tablet. You know what I don't understand? Old Jeffrey Bezos has a flipjillion dollars, and he can't figure out how to. >> Speaker B: Make a dang fire tablet that doesn't. >> Speaker A: Have 2GB of storage on it.
>> Speaker B: It's like, we'll buy my memory card. >> Speaker A: Well, then the freaking housing on the Amazon fire tablets is butt, and it screws up the housing of the memory. >> Speaker B: Card 100% of the time. >> Speaker A: Uh, I have bought my children, collectively. >> Speaker B: Five fire tablets, and only one of. >> Speaker A: Them has never had a problem housing the memory card. You tell me, Jeffrey. I've got four switches in my home.
>> Speaker B: They all have a memory card in them. >> Speaker A: And the folks at Nintendo figured out how to let me put a memory card in it and not have it screw up within a year. So you tell me. But the problem with storage, uh, I'm off track. I got angry at Bezos. Story of my life. But, um, the point is, if you have storage, it will fill up. That's 100% guarantee. It's
only a matter of time. Like, if you give it long enough, the potty shots and the stupid videos of me eating crap are going to fill up your storage. Storage is temporary. Now, these cesspits were usually dug about 3ft across and six to 10ft deep. Um, that's a shallow grave for a short man. This said smaller cess pits could hold about 250 gallons. Um, and that's solid and liquid gallons and larger sized ones were dug to hold up
to 500 gallons. That's a lot of poop and pee and just general garbage being removed from people's lives. And again, these European, these 15 hundreds. >> Speaker B: European cesspit users, they didn't understand something. >> Speaker A: That we all know. You don't flush things that can't be flushed. They would dump all sorts of junk into these cesspits. Family trash, broken housewares, non body function related trash. In short, these pits filled up pretty quick.
>> Speaker B: Like, quicker than you would want. >> Speaker A: It is estimated, a single cesspool for homes in Europe and America where these. >> Speaker B: Were primarily used, needed, emptied about every six weeks. >> Speaker A: Again, you could, based on the build of your pit, have a certain amount. >> Speaker B: Of liquid that seeps into the soil. >> Speaker A: And you might get yourself an extra week or two.
Also, I should note that the dietary toll that was probably being taken on. >> Speaker B: These pits was much less back then. >> Speaker A: We are just garbage people and we eat garbage. >> Speaker B: And our bodies have learned how to. >> Speaker A: Process what is essentially raw nuclear waste at this point in our food. I think of Mr. Domini sharing on his trip to Ecuador, where he's eating this fruit that is so sweet and.
>> Speaker B: So good, and it's better for him. Here we are. >> Speaker A: Did I happen to mention I ate 18 peeps today? And you could, based on the build of your pit, have a certain amount. >> Speaker B: Of liquid that seeps out. >> Speaker A: I like to think that these people who had these cess pits and these. >> Speaker B: Cess pools were kind of like these people that are smacking their vape on the streets.
>> Speaker A: They got these guys that are just so dang addicted to vape, and they got to be always sucking on their cotton candy nonsense. And what's funny to me is the dudes that got the rigs, and they're like, oh, uh, I built my rig. Oh, I got a new. That's what I think of when I. >> Speaker B: Think of these people with. >> Speaker A: I put in the extra thin bricks, so I get an extra four inches on my. You know what I'm saying? They got their cesspit rigs.
More shallow cesspools can have bacteria, which actually help cleanse the liquids, and that might seep into the ground. >> Speaker B: Hey, that's fun. >> Speaker A: Little symbiotic relationship there. Hey, that's for all the kids in science class. I'm not going to define symbiotic relationship. I'm just going to say it, which is always helpful. But even then, solids don't completely break down, and there usually ends up with a layer of human nasty sludge at the
bottom. Gunk, if you will. Cesspools could also be negatively affected by freezing in rainwater. >> Speaker B: You know, it starts to rain, and. >> Speaker A: It'S like, cover the cesspool, because we're going to have to empty it three weeks sooner. As was noted, cesspools attached to homes may need emptied as often as every six weeks. That's pretty frequent. >> Speaker B: Like, I don't even wash my car every six weeks. Larger cesspits, often where pools were dumped.
>> Speaker A: Or emptied into, would need emptied every eight to ten weeks. That's a lot of human waste. It's a lot of emptying. In the words of Mike row, it's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. And in this case, the folks doing those dirty jobs were called gong farmers. >> Speaker B: In Tudor England, the term gong farmer. >> Speaker A: Began to be used to describe the men and young boys who often assisted them, who had the astute pleasure of.
>> Speaker B: Digging out privy pits and emptying out. >> Speaker A: Cesspools and cess pits. What a job. I don't know if there were unions back then, but I feel like this is one of those jobs where I understand why a union might exist for it. >> Speaker B: You know what I'm saying? >> Speaker A: Gong farmers didn't have complex vacuum suction. They they walking around with a Luigi ghost vacuum to suck up the turds. High tech storage containers were not a thing.
They had a shovel, hard work, and hopefully a really nice pair of boots. But you know what, moron? Gong farmers. Another episode. This is not their episode. As fascinating as they may be. The cesspits needed emptied, and the gong farmers were the men who rose to the task. But even with the help of these. >> Speaker B: Heroes, things were stinky.
>> Speaker A: And there was also the problem of as we have mentioned before, seepage, like anytime in my experience, in my humble experience of pushing 30 years on this green earth, when I am interacting with. >> Speaker B: Human Ralph, reek or otherwise, the last. >> Speaker A: Thing that I want as a adjective attached to that experience is seepage. I guess it's a noun. My part of speeches have gotten screwed up, but
seepage is bad. In every instance, when talking about poop, seepage is always bad. There was no regulation, and this led to a number of problems. First, Wells, you know, where you get drinking water, would be dug too close. >> Speaker B: To cesspits, and you would think that. >> Speaker A: This would be a no brainer. It would be easy to cess out. I get it because of the
cess pits. It's funny, but like, you dig two pits, one pit, you're going to dump human crap into like everything you just ate, it reeks, it smells of death. You're going to dump all that in this pit and then just matters of just feet away, you're going to dig a well where you will draw all of your drinking water and your bathing water and all like, come on, maybe build them farther apart, you know what I'm saying? And uh, I think the problem is you would have to build them significantly
farther apart to avoid contamination. That's the trouble. Before reforms began to be made of cesspools and cess pits in Baltimore, it was reported that the city smelled like a billion pole cats. >> Speaker B: Now, I've never smelled a pole cat. >> Speaker A: But I have smelled a regular cat. And I'll tell you what, they one imagine a pole cat, you know what I'm saying? Low man on the pole cat smelled like a billion pole cats. >> Speaker B: It was said of Chicago, the smell.
>> Speaker A: Could knock you down. And so reforms needed to be made, and reforms began to be made in the 18 hundreds. The cesspits had to have more sturdy. >> Speaker B: Walls of stone or concrete to reduce seepage. >> Speaker A: I do a lot of reduced seepage in my day to day. Just saying. But usually concrete isn't involved in the process. >> Speaker B: But now with less seepage, you also. >> Speaker A: Had to remove the liquid waste from the tanks more often.
>> Speaker B: The tanks would fill up faster. >> Speaker A: You're low on storage, it is estimated to give you an idea that a large city in Europe would need to have about, need to have emptied about 100 cesspits per night. The gong farmers are in business. But with the rise of sewers in cities and sewer reforms which we have talked about, cess pits and cesspools and privy pits were filled, abandoned for the up and coming sewage systems. There were still cess pits being used.
>> Speaker B: In the 19 hundreds within some of these cities. >> Speaker A: And I got a note. It was not uncommon for in the heat of the day, for them to. >> Speaker B: Toss especially coals and ashes, and for these cesspits to catch fire like you. >> Speaker A: Would have burning pits of crap. It was not a good thing with further technology developing. For those of you who don't know, I'm a Bible nerd.
Um, when Jesus talks a lot about hell and Gehenna, there was a valley outside of the city where they would dump their waste. And sometimes it caught fire in the heat. And so you can see the picture here like this cesspit. It's hell, it stinks, it's awful, it's contaminated, it's got disease, it's hot, it's burning. But with further technology developing and when. >> Speaker B: Sewer hookups would be too costly, many.
>> Speaker A: Municipalities allow for and have installed septic tanks. Septic tanks, much like their cesspit predecessors. >> Speaker B: Are underground tanks, often made of concrete. >> Speaker A: Fiberglass or plastic, or a combination of these where sewage flows into for treatment. >> Speaker B: Now the primary difference between a septic.
>> Speaker A: Tank and a cesspit is, and this is a very important difference, a septic tank is closed because it's a tank and not a hole in the ground. That's an important distinction to make. Another important distinction is septic tanks should not have seepage. Huh? And again, we are pro, no seepage here. The primary treatment system inside of a. >> Speaker B: Septic tank seeks to break down the. >> Speaker A: Solid materials for more efficient
disposal. Uh, may I say, they're like onsite sewage treatment facilities inside of this tank, buried under the ground on the property. The treated liquids are often then drained into a septic drain field. Septic. >> Speaker B: The term, quote, septic is the term. >> Speaker A: For the bacterial environment that breaks down the human waste inside the tank. Now it should be noted you can't completely liquidize everything. And this buildup is called fecal sludge
or septage. And much like the cesspits of old, it needs removed. You got to get the septage out of the septic tank. And so much like again, Luigi Mario slurping up ghosts. >> Speaker B: We have special crap vacuums which come. >> Speaker A: And slurp up the septage. It's great. Technology has made our lives better. Again, septic tanks can hold up to 2000 gallons. >> Speaker B: They often have two chambers, and when.
>> Speaker A: One is filled, it spills over into the other, which causes that tank to let out liquid into the septic drain field. It's a really cool system. Um, it's kind of like a closed system. But the thing is, septic systems need maintenance. Like, you can't just install one and walk away and think, well, 20 years later, this thing is going to be just fine. They need maintenance. The maintenance of a septic system is often the responsibility of the
resident or property owner. And some forms of abuse or neglect. >> Speaker B: Include excessive disposal of cooking oils. >> Speaker A: Don't dump oil and grease down. If you have a septic tank, it. >> Speaker B: Is for poopy products only. >> Speaker A: These are hard for the septic system, uh, inside the tank to break down. Flushing non biodegradable waste items such as cigarette butts, cotton bud swabs, menstrual hygiene products.
>> Speaker B: Like, don't flush that. >> Speaker A: The number of times I would see. >> Speaker B: Kids flush nonsense at my previous custodial job. >> Speaker A: Quit flushing that stuff. Don't flush food waste. Quit flushing chemicals. >> Speaker B: Like, too much of those chemicals kills. >> Speaker A: The bacteria needed in the septic tank. >> Speaker B: For the system to operate properly.
>> Speaker A: If you have a septic system, make sure that your cleaning products are septic system safe. Some water softeners can actually dilute the wastewater and make it less effective. Roots from trees can poke through the septic system. Dear Lord, what a problem that would be. Playgrounds and storage buildings cause damage to a tank, like the weight pushing down on them. If you build them on top of. >> Speaker B: It, could crush the tank process.
>> Speaker A: Excessive water entering the system may overload. >> Speaker B: It and cause it to fail. >> Speaker A: High rainfall makes it back up over time. Biofilms develop on the pipes of the drainage field, which lead to blockage and referred to as biomat failure. You do not want blockage. >> Speaker B: It's not a perfect system.
>> Speaker A: Septic systems are good, but they're not perfect. And they have a rich history, often composed of no fiery pits of crap. >> Speaker B: If your septic system gets blocked up. >> Speaker A: If it hasn't been treated, it can go reverse. And, uh, trust me, I know something. >> Speaker B: About when septic systems go reverse. >> Speaker A: I shared on the episode where I quit being a janitor. What happens when the septic
system goes reverso? It explodes portions of the septic system into your domicile. You don't want it. Trust me, I stepped in it. You don't want it. It smells awful, and it is a biohazard. Septic systems make up about 20% of home waste management in the United States, and most of these exist in rural communities where access to sewer infrastructure does not exist or would be too costly to the municipalities or the residents of the area to install.
>> Speaker B: And so we can be thankful for. >> Speaker A: Septic systems first, that they are not the cesspits of old. I think we can also be thankful for sewage and sewer lines. We can be thankful for vacuums. >> Speaker B: Because. >> Speaker A: Thanks to very good vacuums, we don't have to get waste deep in crap to fix these problems. As often. I say as often because I'm sure it still happens some. Check your septic friends. Make sure you do those inspections. This
brings us to the end of another episode. Thank you so much for being here. Uh, it truly does mean a lot that you would listen to me talk about septic systems and cesspits for so long. I have a blast researching this stuff and sharing it with you. I hope you have a blast. >> Speaker B: If you do have a blast, share the show. >> Speaker A: Just post it on social media, send it to a friend, say, hey, listen to this guy is a ding dong, but he's my ding. No, wait. Uh,
I'm not going to tell you to leave a rating and review. We already did that at the top of the show. But follow us on social media. We are at Privycast. Send, uh, us an email. Privycast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. >> Speaker B: Episode comments, suggestions, concerns, pictures. >> Speaker A: Um, feel free to tag the show. If you got crazy stuff that you're finding out in the wild about bathrooms, feel free to just add that privycast.
>> Speaker B: Hashtag privycast on any of those. >> Speaker A: Um, just that way the show can. It's easier for me to see the things that you all are seeing. Uh, and we'll just kind of help build that community. We figure out what to call the people who listen to this. The privy heads. Yeah, it's a work in progress. >> Speaker B: We'll sort that out. >> Speaker A: If you have thoughts on what we should be called, um, feel free to include that in your email.
As always, we want to thank Kevin McLeod and Pottington bear for the use of their music. Thanks, Kevin and Pottington. This has been another episode of Privy. Thank you so much for joining us. Keep pooping in the free world. Wash your butthole. And as always, don't forget to flush. >> Speaker B: It's.