We live in Mexico. This is the first house we have lived in with a septic system. I don't know much about our system nor how septic system work in general. We are in this house almost 3 years. Every year when we enter rainy season (now) funky odors come from the floor vents in the master bath. In the farthest corner of our lot, along a retaining wall is a 3" PVC tube which I believe is the vent for the septic system. It is just normal PVC with no cap. When it rains here - almost every night - it can rain 2-3". I'm wondering if the PVC tube - which raises perhaps 15 feet or so from the ground - has gotten filled with water and therefore there is no venting (except into the house). Does that make sense ? I was thinking of drilling a small hole in the pipe to see if water leaked out to confirm my theory. Then if I'm correct I was thinking of adding some sort of cap to the PVC pipe. Any thoughts appreciated. Edit : btw - I have never done _anything_ in terms of septic maintenance. Never added chemicals etc. When we bought the house the previous owners gave us some architectural docs for the house - including the septic system (which I think was called a septic 'farm'). I believe (from memory) there is no metal or plastic 'tank'. There is a bunch of underground rocks - with no way to access anything without starting to dig.

A relatively new owner of an aerobic septic system here.... The trouble light came on on my control panel, and my wife clicked to reset (the circuit breaker button) and reports that it immediately tripped again. I went to have a look when I got home and I cannot get the reset switch (marked circuit breaker) to actuate. You can depress it the button but it never 'clicks'. Before I schedule the second service call in two weeks - I had them out two weeks ago just to tell me what I needed to know about an aerobic septic system - I'm wondering if she pressed the switch too vigorously and broke the button... or if perhaps there is some other operational procedure of which I might be unaware. Thanks for a kick in the right direction.....