If your house is far from town, then you are probably not on the sewer line. You more than likely have a septic system to handle your wastewater. If you've never had a septic system before, you may be unfamiliar with what it exactly it is, and how to maintain it. 

Septic System

Your septic system is made up of two basic parts, the tank and the leech field. The tank generally has at least two chambers in it. The water flows into the first chamber, which is filled with anaerobic bacteria. In that chamber, the solids and the liquids will start to separate. The solids will fall to the bottom where the bacteria will munch on them, which will produce a kind of sludge that will gather at the bottom of the chamber. Then, the liquids will flow into the second chamber. In that chamber, the water will go through a further purification process. Then it flows out to the leech field. The leech field is a section of your property where the septic tank empties out. The water leaves the tank and soaks into the soil. That will let the water go through the final purification and then go back into groundwater. 

Maintenance

There are a few things that you need to do to make sure that you properly maintain your septic tank. One of them is that you need to make sure that you have it pumped out on a regular basis. How often that is depends on a lot of things, including how big your tank is, how many people are in your house, and how many taps you have. If you aren't sure how often it needs to be pumped, you can take to a septic company who can help you figure that out. If you aren't sure when it was last pumped, you may want to talk to the company and ask them to come check out your tank. They can give you a good idea as to when it was pumped last and when it will need to be pumped again. You may want to consider having them just go ahead and pumping it, just so that you are sure that it's nice and clean. 

You have to have a way to get rid of wastewater. If you don't live on a sewer line, then you have to have a septic tank to handle it.