Sewer Gas, the Dummies Version

Plumbing stack vent

When people start giving advice on topics that are well outside their expertise, as often happens on sites that pay for content such as eHow.com, they usually start by finding what they think is an authoritative answer. Then they reword it. Even when the facts aren't changed because of their ignorance, they still find themselves constrained by space limitations, forcing them to decide which information to include and which to omit. Sometimes, that means emphasizing trivial (but interesting-sounding) cases while ignoring much more likely scenarios. That's exactly what Tom Lutzenberger did for eHow when addressing "What Causes Gas Smell From the Sewer When It Rains?" (now at Hunker.com).

Tom found an expert all right, doing little more than rewording the answer found at Ask The Builder. He had to leave out some information, however, since eHow doesn't want content that's so long that people have to page down. Consequently, he included the following in his "common" causes of sewer gas entering a house: "Many times in rural areas that begin to see development, a leach field may have existed previously. If the development doesn't properly remove the tile forming the bed of the leach field, the wastewater will drain to a low point, frequently the basement of a nearby house. As a result, the basement will smell as the water leaks into the basement drain point in the floor. Anyone planning a basement should make sure there are no past leach fields within 30 feet of the dig area."

Lutzenberger (whose expertise as a plumber and builder comprise a BA in English and an MBA) included that one because it's the first user comment posted to the content he mined so merrily. What he didn't include anywhere, probably because he knows squat about sewage systems, is vent pipes. We say that because not once does Tom mention these pipes, which stick out through the roof of a house. That's the way sewer gas is vented to the outside of the house - without them, the gases would build up pressure in the system. Blocked vents and cracked or leaky vent pipes are prime suspects when there's a sewage odor in the house. If our boy had bothered to read further in the comment section of that Ask the Builder post, he might have learned something.

Speaking of learning something, Lutzenberger also tripped himself up by saying that

"Municipal systems tend to be designed with a main tank located far away from trafficked areas..."

"Main tank"? Is this guy kidding? He must have municipal sewage systems confused with septic tanks... What a dumbass - a Dumbass of the Day, to be precise.

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