Publisher’s Note: This story is part of a series that originally aired in February 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic cut our coverage. GPB updated these stories to showcase the full series in September 2020. The series is part of the Pulitzer Center’s Connected Coastlines reporting initiative. More information can be found at pulitzercenter.org/connected-coastlines.
When you flush the toilet, it either ends up in your local sewage system or in a sewage system on your property. Without a sewage treatment plant, sewage treatment plants rely on a lot of soil and space to filter out the harmful substances. However, as the sea level rises, the septic tanks run out of space. Compromised septic tanks can pollute nearby waterways, and climate change is making the problem worse.
To get to Wanda and David Scott’s dock, take a gravel path that runs through the swamp behind their yard. Unlike their neighbors’ raised boardwalks, it’s almost swampy, so flooding sometimes occurs, which can make it difficult to have friends.
“Like today, I would have thought you would have to wade in the water to get to the dock?” Wanda Scott said one last afternoon. “We knew that maybe two or three times a month [it would flood] In front. It’s pretty regular now. “
Like most of the people in their Whitemarsh Island neighborhood, the Scotts rely on a sewer system. Wanda Scott was worried about the ever-increasing tide.
“It makes sense to me that when the septic tank is this close to the swamp and the marshland is now flooding more regularly at high tide, the runoff of all these houses … is part of the runoff,” she said.
The water from the toilets, showers, and sinks in the Scott’s house flows into a septic tank. The solids stay in the tank where they are broken down by bacteria. Then the still contaminated water called sewage flows into specially designed pipes and floors called the drainage field.
“You have to maintain some degree of separation between the septic tank field and the water table so that the wastewater flowing to the drainage field has room to seep through the soil and be treated by any microbes there,” said Scott Pippin of UGA.
However, a rise in sea level decreases the separation.
“So the first impact will be less treatment of the wastewater leaving the sewer systems. So that will translate into potential pollution, ”Pippin said.
Pollution of the waterway where Scots and their neighbors swim, fish and boating.
There is no water quality check for this creek, so local residents and officials do not know if it is polluted. Several residents are pushing for regular tests.
But ten miles away, Marc Frischer of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography showed that there are bacteria from human waste in the Vernon River.
“We were able to distinguish E. coli bacteria that came from a sewer system from those that came from the sewer system,” he said.
Frischer and his team simulated a leaky sewage system. They found that leaks likely end up in the waterway long before you would notice a problem at home.
“And we don’t see it. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Until there is a problem, ”he said.
David Scott on Whitemarsh Island said they had problems when it rained a lot.
“Our runoff field, which is in the back yard of our sewer system, is also becoming saturated. It can’t, can’t get rid of it, you know, ”he said. “So we back down and have to call a service to pump out the septic tank.”
Climate change promises more precipitation to secure the systems as well as higher water levels to impair filtration. Florida is already seeing regular problems with its failing sewer systems.
But the question is, how do you fix a problem that is out of sight and out of your mind? Communities and researchers on the Georgia coast are trying to find an answer before it’s too late.
For more stories about septic tanks and coastal climate change, visit Savannahnow.com
https://www.savannahnow.com/news/20200228/septic-tanks-threaten-water-quality-on-georgiarsquos-coast-as-sea-levels-rise
https://www.savannahnow.com/news/20200313/unlike-its-neighbors-georgia-knows-where-its-septic-lies
And listen on GPB radio for more stories in this series.
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