SepticPlain pages are written to be accurate, useful and honest about where each number and rule comes from, and about what a web page cannot know about your system. This page sets out how that works and where its limits are.
How a page is made
- Research. We start from primary sources, our cost register and our register of state rules, and note what they do and do not settle.
- Writing. A draft is written from that research under the SepticPlain name.
- Fact-check. A separate check compares each size, limit, fee, wage, date and rule with its source, and reworks every sum on the page.
- Graphics. Any diagrams or charts repeat figures from the text and add no new facts.
- Final review. A last read looks for errors, gaps and unsafe advice. If it finds a serious problem, the page is fixed and reviewed again. We do not publish a page with a serious problem still open.
Each page ends with the date its sources were checked. No process catches everything, so please tell us if you find a mistake.
Our sources
Every size, limit, fee, wage, date, rule and safety instruction links to a primary source at the claim. We use sources such as EPA, state codes and administrative rules, state and county health departments, university extension services, USDA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, OSHA and manufacturer specification sheets for product details.
Installed prices are the exception, because most have no primary source. For those we use government figures where they exist, such as public bid results, and otherwise show named published estimates, each dated and labelled with what it measures, next to our own build-up from materials, wages and a stated overhead line. Our how we estimate costs page explains the method. If we cannot confirm something, we leave it out or say plainly that it is unconfirmed.
State and county rules
There is no single national septic code: systems are regulated by states, tribes and local governments. So we never state a national rule that doesn’t exist. When a page gives a rule, it names the state, links to the code or the agency page, and says when we read it. Where states differ, we say so and name the states we have read. If we read a rule on a copy rather than the official text, we say that too. The local health department or permitting office decides.
What we do not claim
- We do no pumping, installs or inspections. We never say “we tested”, “we pumped” or “we got quotes”, and we do not claim to have done the work we describe.
- We do not invent authors, quotes, homeowner stories or comments from pumpers or installers.
- We do not rank companies, products or system types unless public data supports the ranking, and we do not call anything “best” on the strength of an opinion.
- We never call a price “fair”, and never say a system is “safe”, “compliant” or something “you are allowed” to install. We give estimates and describe rules; the local permitting office decides.
- Photos are stock images chosen to illustrate a topic. They do not show jobs we have done or systems we have seen.
Safety
Septic work can expose people to sewage and to gases that can kill, and a page can read like permission. So we follow these rules:
- We never suggest entering a tank or leaning into an open one. Lid advice follows Washington’s Department of Health: keep lids secured, never leave an open lid unattended, and teach children not to play on them.
- No do-it-yourself steps for pumping, tank or drain field repair, or digging near lines.
- Septic gas wording comes from a primary source such as OSHA or a state health department.
- Sewage in the home or yard goes to the local health department, and cleanup wording comes only from EPA, CDC or a health department.
- Where a failing system may affect a drinking water well, we point to well testing through the local health department, as EPA advises.
- No page advises skipping a permit or avoiding an inspection, or says what a seller may leave undisclosed. Rules at the sale of a home are general information, not legal advice.
Fairness
Claims by pumpers, installers and product sellers are reported as claims. Many published cost ranges come from sites that sell leads to contractors, and we name the source so you can weigh it. Where guidance conflicts, such as EPA and a university extension service giving different pumping intervals, we show both and explain why they differ. Sometimes the honest answer is that a tank doesn’t need pumping yet, or that a cheaper repair is worth asking about.
Calculators
Our calculators are formulas with named inputs and shown working, and each formula is checked against answers worked by hand before it goes live. A calculator that uses a state rule includes only states whose rule we have read. Every default that is a price, an hour count, a rate or a rule value says where it comes from, or that it is our assumption, and you can change it. Calculators print numbers only, so read the notes on the page around them.
Updates and corrections
Costs, wages and rules change. We recheck rules in states with a rule change under way every month, other state rules every 6 months, and any cost figure older than 12 months, sooner when a source changes. A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed. Errors are fixed and recorded on our corrections page.
Advertising and independence
Display advertising pays for this site, and advertisers have no say over what we publish. We use no affiliate links, accept no paid placements, sell no leads and make no contractor referrals. Our about page has more on how the site works.