While you wait
- Stop all water use — no flushing, no laundry, no dishwasher
- Keep people and pets away from any standing sewage
- Don't open the tank lid
- Don't add chemicals or "treatments"
- Note when it started and what you were doing (laundry? guests? heavy rain?) — it helps the diagnosis
What counts as an emergency
- Sewage backing up into the house
- Sewage surfacing in the yard
- Overflowing tank or riser
- ATU alarm with sewage odor
- Pump failure in a system with a pump chamber
Brevard emergencies cluster in the wet season and after tropical weather, when the water table comes up under every drainfield at once. If your system floods during a storm: stop using water, don't open the tank, and don't run the pump on an ATU that's under water. Most systems recover once the ground drains; the ones that don't are the ones that were already marginal.
What happens on arrival. The crew pumps the tank to relieve pressure, then looks for the cause — a full tank, a blocked outlet or filter, a failed pump, or a field that can't absorb. You'll get a plain answer: this was a pump-out, or this is a field problem and here's what it will take.
All work is performed by Florida-registered septic tank contractors who are licensed and insured.