City sewer or septic?

If you are not sure which you have, look for a sewer charge on your utility bill. No sewer charge usually means a septic system.

On city sewer

  • Lateral runs to a public main in the street
  • Main blockages reported to the city utility
  • Backups follow lateral clogs or main surcharges
  • Plumber clears the lateral

On a septic system

  • Wastewater goes to a tank and a soil treatment area on the property
  • No public main; the owner is responsible for the whole system
  • Backups follow a full tank, a clogged outlet or a failing field
  • A septic professional pumps and inspects

Brighton's mix of housing

Brighton has an older core with early twentieth-century homes and mid-century houses, ringed by subdivisions built in the last few decades. Outside city limits, unincorporated Adams County around Brighton includes farms, acreage homes and properties that rely on septic systems. Parts of the area also extend toward Weld County, so check which county and provider apply to your address.

For homes in the older core, the pattern looks like other older north metro neighborhoods: aging laterals and basements with floor drains. Newer subdivisions behave like newer Thornton homes, with plastic laterals and more household-debris clogs. Septic homes are the outlier.

A typical septic backup

Illustrative example. Not a real job or customer.

In an illustrative example, an acreage home east of town has slow drains for a week, then sewage comes up a basement shower drain after a weekend of guests.

  1. The household stops water use; with a septic system, every gallon goes into an already full tank.
  2. A septic professional pumps the tank and finds the outlet baffle and effluent filter clogged.
  3. The cleanup in the basement follows the same Category 3 steps as any sewage backup.

The tank was pumped and the filter cleaned, and the owner set a regular pumping schedule and asked for an inspection of the soil treatment area.

Septic owners: prevent the next one

  • Know where the tank lid is and how long since it was last pumped
  • Keep wipes, grease and harsh chemicals out of drains; they harm septic systems even more than city lines
  • Spread laundry loads across the week instead of one big day
  • Keep vehicles and heavy equipment off the tank and field
  • Ask the county health department about permits before any septic repair or replacement
Map of Brighton. It shows an area, not an office or a job site.

General information for Thornton, not a quote or professional advice. In an emergency, call 911.