В Вермонте пройдет развлекательное мероприятие по профилактике аварийных септических систем

NORTH BENNINGTON — A free and open event on preventing septic system failures will feature helpful information about the topic and will also include remote-controlled race toilets. The event will be held at Lake Paran on Wednesday, Sept. 16, starting at noon. The theme is “learn how to prevent septic failures and protect your community." Organizing the event are the Bennington County Conservation District (BCCD) and a grassroots organization out of Fairlee, Septic Education For Everyone, or SEFE.org. “Learning about septic systems is more fun than people realize," said Jude Stull, of SEFE, describing the activity. "It's a lot of fun. It's basically a beanbag toss and build game, but it's like nothing you've ever quite seen before.” SepticSmart Week 2026 takes place from September 14–18, marking the 14th annual event led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The issue has importance not only for property owners and renters but for water quality in general. “It's septic awareness month, which is why we went with this month, and Lake Paran is just a great resource very centrally located. We're trying to help them with their outreach just as they've been really gracious with helping out with our outreach,” said Coryn Britton, Water Quality Specialist with the BCCD. “They're a great candidate because we've been doing the state's lay monitoring program there for a couple of years, which is water quality testing and sampling." This state program trains and equips volunteers to conduct summer lake water quality sampling from their boat using quality-assured methods approved by the EPA. The results can indicate the pollution from failed septic systems. "One of the new indicators that the lay monitoring program tests for is caffeine, which is kind of a creative way for them to find out if there are failed septic systems in the area or issues because pretty much everyone drinks caffeine," Britton said. "And so we're basically just trying to get more people talking about septic maintenance. A lot of the septic systems, as we all know in Vermont, are very dated, and unless there's town septic, more often than not, there's probably some failures, and nobody thinks about it.” “Until it's too late, and then then it's all they think about,” Stull added. Vermont has the highest rate of use of individual septic systems in New England, at 55% of households. He said that according to the state Agency of Natural Resources, at least two septic systems fail every day. “It seems like it's such a taboo subject. Nobody wants to talk about this, but it's actually the one that any person can relate to," said Britton. “I just had to fix my system, and it's an expensive thing, and so preventing it from getting to that point is really important.” Topics around prevention include discussing what's safe to put into a septic system, knowing what kind of system you have, the capacity of the tank, where its located on the property and how often it has to be pumped. Homeowners know this, but renters may not. "At our last event a year ago, we had several homeowners approach us at our booth in front of the state capitol building, stating that they didn't know even these basic things like inspections and they wish someone someone had told them," Stull said. "That was feedback we got multiple times, September of 2025, and I was amazed.” Stull said the approach of SEFE is to take a light approach to the topic. "It's an inherently unsavory subject, and nobody likes being lectured to, so we got together, our little group, and thought of ways to do it, ways to get that message out,” Stull said. “And so what we do is we gamify the the issue as much as possible, and we've had a lot of fun with that. We also have hands-on activities such as our soil sifting, and and we (have) trivia games as well. So, by putting a laugh and a smile on people's face, we hope to sort of backdoor the issue of awareness.” Britton spoke of the tactical basin planning process, from which residents can find water quality reports on the health of rivers, streams and lakes. One indicator is the bacteria level. “There's segments of the river near where I live in Jamaica, Vermont that have poor ratings in that in that realm,” she said. “And from personal accounts, I know that there's in those areas grandfathered-in septic systems that are like straight pipes into rivers.” This is a very important topic that needs discussion and more attention. Perhaps this could motivate residents to band together to find state resources and grants to get town septic systems put in, she said. “I mean nobody wants their kids playing in septic water in rivers — in poop water, I'm just going to say it — so I think that it's really a cool, important educational topic,” Britton said.