I live in a 1500 sq ft house in the South. Last night I washed dishes during a rainstorm. Later I was awoken by a nasty smell of sewage. The smell was strongest in the master bedroom/bath, but permeated the whole house. I opened some windows turned on the ceiling fan and got rid of the worst of it. I then went back to sleep. This has happened once before. During a period when I wasn't using the master bedroom, the sewer trap in the toilet went dry and some gas got back into the room. A couple of flushes fixed that problem, but when I checked last night the trap was fine. A few other clues: Once or twice during heavy rains I've experienced backflow into the toilets when flushing. I also had to have a plumber come out a few months ago when the septic line became completely clogged to clean it out. I also know the former owner had to have some septic field work done, but I don't know the extent of the work. As far as I know I only have one tank, one building on that tank and no pumps anywhere in the septic system. What is the likely cause of this? Where should I start looking for a cause?

I have a well at my cottage with a water pump. It is an above ground pump. I have never had any trouble with it and then yesterday it started running continuously. It’s keeping pressure, I have all the water I need in the house, but the pump will not shut off. I suspect that it is the pump itself, because when I unplug it to stop it from running, there’s a small clunk and then a click click click click click before it stops. Never done this before. I’m having a new drilled well put in in a month so I don’t wanna run out and buy a new water pump. Any suggestions to get this thing working temporarily?