My First Posting

This is my first time at trying my hand at "blogging". I'm not sure how it will turn out but I believe that there is a huge need for other voices in the septic industry that are interested in the homeowner who has to pay the bills. The influences that have brought me to this place in time I'll outline so there is hopefully a baseline for what I'm hoping to accomplish.

I am a 64 year old general contractor / consultant / inventor / designer licensed for more than 40 years. I decided in the early 1990s to find a solution for the homeowners to the costly, limited options being forced on homeowners by government regulations. Having patented a number of revolutionary products in several industries, I guess I've become a bit of an arrogant SOB when I think I can find a solution others can't or don't. I designed a device in 1995 as a solution for the homeowner. The method for its use was finalized in 2000. I succeeded far beyond what I'd hoped for. I started marketing my device and method for its use as the Pirana System. I created another dimension for the homeowner marketing a variant under the name Septic Genie.

My device changed my way of thinking about septic system repair and the septic industry in general. My device and its method of use has been teaching me how to think and view the septic industry and the governmental agencies that control and limit the homeowner's septic options (to the extent government can enforce control). The general septic industry promoted these limited options, and now my opinion is the general industry has been unknowingly acting as a decentralized monopoly.

I remember when ex-President Eisenhower left office and gave a speech that has a line in the speech that has been mentioned and quoted to this day. I paraphrase it here. "We must be wary of the military industrial complex..." Well there is another "complex" that the property owner with a septic system has to be wary of and that is the "regulator / septic industry complex" that has developed over that past three or four decades. This is a very important concern because which of us does not use the bathroom every day. We're trapped by having a biological imperative that impacts our daily lives no matter where we are. This makes a regulatory agency's decisions regarding septic systems and the business behavior of the septic industry in general very important and very different from other government agencies and other industries we deal with. We don't have to fix the roof if it leaks but we do have to fix the septic system failure.

In some ways I dislike to use the following comparison but I think its real and the impact is powerful. Property owners needing to "fix" his or her septic system that has a disposal field problem, are not that dissimilar to an addict needing a "fix" (interesting way of putting this solution) and the septic industry is not unlike an addict's supplier...they both can charge pretty much what they want and addict or property owner has to pay.

Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves and our neighbors, the regulators over time have limited our septic solution options promoted by the general septic industry interests, while not limiting our costs. Anyone living in the USA should know that if government limits our options and doesn't limit our costs, then there is no direction for costs to go but up. This is exactly what has happened to the homeowner with a septic problem; his costs have not only gone up but in many areas of the country have skyrocketed upward.

Anyone who has experienced septic system problems or drain field failure, and has had to work within the limitations the regulatory agencies have imposed on them to fix their septic problems, knows the horrendous costs they would have to pay if they followed these limitations. It is no wonder that the regulatory agencies are viewed as the enemy.

My intent will not be to bash the governmental regulatory agencies (I will not hesitate to call them to task for their positions vis a vis their employers the tax paying property owners), or the septic onsite treatment and disposal industry in general. My intent will be to give readers different perspectives, different ideas and different information than they will get from either the regulators or general septic industry businesses. I want to stimulate the reader to think independently while hopefully I educate the reader on subjects surrounding septic systems, septic system problems, disposal field failures, (often referred to leachfield failure) or generic disposal field problems.

My next postings will be about septic issues that have been sent to my web sites and my answers and perspectives to the issues.

Thanks for stopping by.