Septic Systems in Sooke

What the system on your property is for

If your home isn't on the municipal sewer, the sewage has to be treated and dealt with on your own property — that's what the tank and drain field in your yard are for. Island Health's job is to make sure every building with indoor plumbing has a system that meets the Sewerage System Regulation. We're Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioners and we carry WorkSafeBC coverage. We look after the whole system — tank, distribution box and field — from the first test pit to the Letter of Certification.

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 program for septic owners called Be Septic Savvy: Protect, Inspect, Maintain. We work to those rules on every job and file whatever needs filing. And whatever the job, you'll hear back from us within 24 hours.

Why we keep going on about maintenance

Every system built under the regulation comes with a maintenance plan from the person who designed it. Follow the plan and the field keeps working. If your system is older and no plan came with the house, an authorized maintenance provider can write you one. Have it out when we come by and we'll work to it.

What you get when the job is done

When we finish a new system, you get the as-built diagram, the maintenance plan and the Letter of Certification. Keep them where you can find them — we'll ask for them the next time we're out. After a pump-out, we tell you what the tank looked like when the lid came off. Hang on to the maintenance plan especially — it tells you when the next pump-out is due.

What is free and what is not

Coming out to look is free, and so is the price that follows. Design work is a separate charge — we dig test pits, read the soil and draw up the system, and each of those has its own price. We'll tell you up front which one you're looking at. On a new build, the assessment and design come first, then the quote for the build itself.

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 go in the garbage. Medications go back to a pharmacy, not down the drain.

Same goes for feminine hygiene products, paper towels, tissues, diapers and cotton swabs. Products sold as flushable — wipes included — don't break down like toilet paper, and they can clog pipes and damage a system. We pull them out of tanks, and they still look 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 like coffee grounds, rice and pasta, eggshells, paint, solvents and chemicals, and excess cleaning products. The garburator's off-limits for those too.

Fats, oils and grease go down as a liquid, then cool and harden inside the pipe — that's how a line blocks. Too much of that and you overload the system and upset how it treats the waste. We clear blocked lines, and we tell you what was in there.