What to do if…
your septic system alarm goes off or the control panel shows a warning

What to do now

1. Silence the noise without trying to fix the system. If your panel has a silence, mute, or acknowledge button, press it. Leave the alarm system powered unless you can smell burning, see smoke, or there is an immediate electrical danger.
2. Cut water use right down. Ask everyone in the property to stop showers, baths, laundry, dishwasher use, and repeated toilet flushing. Use one toilet only if essential.
3. Do only a safe outside check. From a safe distance, look for standing water, wet ground, sewage smell, overflowing inspection chambers, or water near the tank, pump chamber, treatment plant, or drainage field. Do not lift covers.
4. Check for a simple power issue only if it is safe, dry, and accessible. Look for a tripped breaker or RCBO labelled pump, sewage, treatment plant, effluent, or drainage. Reset it once only if it has clearly tripped. If it trips again, stop and wait for a professional.
5. Treat a recent power cut or heavy rain as important information. If there has been a power cut, assume the pump may not have caught up yet. If there has been heavy rain, assume the system may be overwhelmed or taking in extra water until checked.
6. Call the right help for your system. If you have a service or maintenance company, call them first and say: “The septic or sewage treatment alarm is sounding, we have reduced water use, and we need urgent advice.” If you do not have one, contact the installer, a septic or sewage treatment plant engineer, or a septic tank emptying contractor if the tank may need emptying.
7. Act faster if there are signs of backup or overflow. If sewage smells are indoors, drains are gurgling throughout the property, toilets are slow or rising, water is backing up, or sewage is visible outside, keep water use near zero and ask for urgent attendance.
8. Report pollution if effluent may be escaping outdoors. If sewage or effluent is reaching land, a drain, a ditch, a stream, a river, a pond, or surface water, report it to the right regulator:
   • England: Environment Agency incident hotline 0800 80 70 60.
   • Wales: Natural Resources Wales 0300 065 3000.
   • Scotland: SEPA pollution hotline 0800 80 70 60; live operators are generally available 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and the automated system triages urgent reports outside those hours.
   • Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Environment Agency water pollution hotline 0800 80 70 60.
9. Write down what you can see. Note the time, alarm wording, error code, light pattern, recent power cut, heavy rain, heavy water use, and any smells, slow drains, backup, or wet ground. Give this to the engineer or contractor.