Hurricane Sandy's Effect On Septic Systems

It has now been nearly three weeks since Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast with gale force winds and storm surge flooding. The storm was so immense that basic cleanup efforts are still taking place and could continue for months to come.

Long Island, NY is still reeling from the storm, with some residents still without power. While power is a basic necessity for the residents of Long Island, and is quite important, a lesser known effect of the storm is the toll the flood waters have taken on cesspools and septic systems all around the island.

The Northeastern United States is home to the largest amount of homes with septic plumbing in the world; some of these cesspools and tanks are over 200 years old. With the floodwater lifting the water table higher than normal, many of these cesspools were critically damaged. A critically damaged cesspool could leader to a cesspool emergency involving leaking (which could lead to groundwater contamination), or a complete cesspool failure, in-which the tank collapses in on itself and creates a dangerous sinkhole.

Quality Cesspool is a company based out of Long Island that performs routine cesspool pumping and maintenance, as well as responds to cesspool emergencies -- emergencies that have skyrocketed since Sandy made landfall.

The majority of the cesspool emergencies involve septic tanks that were not properly maintained before the hurricane; without that little bit of upkeep, these septic tanks are failing and the homeowners are returning home to find out that the entire tank must now be excavated from the ground, sometimes requiring the foundation itself to be worked on. The sad part of this is that cesspool maintenance is not expensive at all, and Cesspool Services to all the monthly dirty work for you. For those who chose not to regularly protect the pits, it is now an expensive, smelly mess.