Fall and winter gatherings are upon us and that often means a bustling house full of family, friends and preparation of tasty recipes in the kitchen. All of these things should make for joyful times, but they can potentially have a stressful impact on your private water well and onsite wastewater systems.

With the ownership of water well and wastewater systems, comes great responsibility. You oversee the upkeep, not a municipality. While your immediate family should know how to avoid undue stress on these systems, your guests may not, so share information on the best daily practices. With everyone in the know, you will help each system perform efficiently despite the increased demands while having additional houseguests.

• Water conservation and staggering of higher water demands throughout the day can have a positive impact in reducing strain on both systems.
• Check for and fix any leaky indoor or outdoor water fixtures such as faucets/hydrants, shower heads or continuously running toilets. Consider replacing older water fixtures with new, low-water usage ones before having a house full of guests.
• Ask everyone to take quick showers and stagger the water usage by having some shower in the morning while the others shower in the evening.
• Lessen wasted water by reminding everyone to turn off the water while brushing teeth, washing hands/face or shaving.
• Combine smaller loads of laundry and only do one or two loads per day.
• Run the dishwasher and/or washing machine at night when water use is at its lowest.
• Minimizing solids within your wastewater will improve your system’s performance. Solids add to the organic load in the system and too much can produce an unbalanced system, resulting in inadequate treatment. Problems can include clogged pipes, clogged filter screens or a clogged and/or saturated drain field.
• Choose composting or the trash over using the garbage disposal to get rid of items such as vegetable skins and trimmings.
• Do not pour cooking oils or grease from the cooked meats down the drain at any time; rather pour into a disposable container, refrigerate until solid and throw away.
• Avoid flushing items other than septic friendly toilet paper and human waste, even if the items say they are flushable. 

By implementing these best daily practices, you will help to ensure your water and wastewater systems will not be to blame for a potentially messy and costly disruption of your holiday festivities.

For more information on maintaining your water well and wastewater systems, go to water.unl.edu/ residential-water-use.