With so much talk about cities like Cape Coral trying to move away from septic systems to city sewers, the reality is that in many areas in Southwest Florida, particularly in rural areas (yes, they still exist), septic systems are a necessity. Why run sewer pipes in areas where there’s nothing but farms?

Septic systems need to be cared for, however. Moon Septic has been the company people have asked to handle those needs from pumping the tank to even septic systems.

Richard Katz started the business in 1995 in the Fort Lauderdale area as Moon Plumbing. Katz came to Southwest Florida soon after, where Moon Plumbing would be taken over by his younger brother.

Katz, who runs this family-owned company with his fiance, Helen Haynes, said business has been great and that he has a great rapport with his customers.

Septic companies aren’t particularly sexy, but they perform a vital service to people who still need septic in areas where sewer systems are not an option.

“We pump the tanks, we install them, we do new construction and repairs to an existing home,” Katz said. “People have idea that you’re going to fix what’s broken. But really, you have to rip it out and put in new.”

Moon Septic is a member of the North Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce and gets a lot of its business there since much of the area runs on septic. However, they do work from Sarasota to Naples and east to the Lake Okeechobee area.

The rumors of septic systems’ imminent demise have grossly exaggerated, even as cities like Cape Coral move to sewers. There may come a time when the city may need their services.

“Even with sewers coming into the cities, we still benefit from that. When the city has lift stations go down and you have raw sewage in the street, they call companies like us,” Haynes said. “We can get guys out around the clock to clean it up.”

“When you have hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage spilling onto the ground, sewer is where you get it from, not septic,” Katz said. “We do work for Collier and Lee counties. We pump down the lift stations and maintain them until they get their pumps fixed.”

Failure to maintain a septic system could result in having the replace the system, which could run between $8,000 and $25,000, depending on the size of the home and type of system.

Katz said he recommends people with septic systems perform regular maintenance on them, which means pumping them out every two years, especially with all the anti-bacterial soaps and hand sanitizers out there.

“Baby wipes cannot be flushed down the toilet. They are not biodegradable and the plug up the tank and cause a backup,” Katz said. “The anti-bacterial soaps kill off the good bacteria we need in the tanks, which means you have to pumps them more frequently.”

Moon Septic is available 24/7 for emergency needs. For more information, visit moonseptic.com or call 239-368-9258.

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