Leach field problem?

14 years ago

A few days ago, I noticed a mysterious pool of clear water at the back corner of my house. As for drinking water, there's not a supply line anywhere near this area. My first thought, and greatest fear, since my house is on a slab, a pipe had sprung a leak somewhere under the slab and this was just where the water had found its way out. But then I noticed whenever I washed a load of clothes, the pool grew and spread across the lawn (this area is on opposite end of house from laundry room). Would this be the leach lines or the septic tank clogged or both? There's also been a good deal of rain lately, and I'm wondering if that could be a factor.

BTW, I've lived in the house 12 years. The septic tank has never been pumped since I've been here, and don't know if the previous owner ever did. I'm a single male, with no kids or females in the house flushing 'undesireables' down the toilet. And the water in the pool smells 'clean', certainly not like anything that came out of a septic tank. All drains and toilets in the house are working normally (no back-ups). Your thoughts?

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Comments (7)

faucetman886
14 years ago
I think it could be one of two different things, first with your tank going undrained for 12 years it could certainly be overdue. If it is full the water draining from your washer would be hitting the top of the full septic tank and be flowing straight to the leach field. The second thought is that you have a break in the actual drain line leading to the septic tank. Smaller valumes of water from a toilet, sink, etc might more easily get past the leak and/or sit in the septic tank long enough to mix into the content of the tank. Best guess...full septic tank. For the second time in so many days I had answered a similar question on another website and posted just this morning a blog about when and how to go about diagnosing a full septic tank and how the draining is done. Link to that blog is below or check my profile for the URL to my blogsite itself.

Here is a link that might be useful: My blog on draining a septic tank
hendricus
14 years ago
Is it possible that the washer is draining seperately from the septic system? I know that my in-laws did not run their washer into the septic system, just a hose into the garden.
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"after all why let the grass have all the fun" Grass roots to a depth of 2-3 inches and works like a wick for pulling moisture out of the ground (part of how a septic field works). The grass also keeps your field from eroding. It's not "having fun"...it's helping the system do it's job. The fact that grass over a lot of fields looks rather lush when it's only pulling nutrients from 2-3" of soil via upward movement of water/nutrients says a lot about a field and the job it does wicking moisture from the septic output into the field. Putting a few low-water/low-shade/low-intensive plants on the field (or preferably on the border of the field) probably won't hurt much, but if your septic field can't handle what stresses you're adding to it...especially if it blocks water transpiration while you're adding more water to the field to grow plants...it could get ugly. It all depends on so many things...your field size, how much you use it, the type of soil in the field, how well it transpires water on it's own, what and how much you plan to plant on it, and a hand full of other things. It's important to remember that the field is part of the system. It's "just dirt and grass", but it serves as much of a function as the tank. This post was edited by nc-crn on Mon, Mar 18, 13 at 16:00
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Castoff, Sounds like you have systems that are similar to Vermont's. We also have open and closed systems, distribution boxes, etc. The 2 systems with pumps that I described both had leaching areas remote from and higher than the tank and so had to be pumped. In this area if it is all clay soil, I can almost gurantee that a raised leaching area would be required..here they are called "mound systems." In my dealings (until new State laws were passed 3 or 4 yrs ago) each town or city had its own regulations. The smaller towns did nothing. They left it up to home owners and local contractors to design and build their own systems. In most of these cases they were rural communities and the landowners had many acres...the practice was to just build something big enough and to heck with any fancy design. The State of VT now has to issue permits for all designs. The trade off for this regulation is that they will now accept "modern" systems that allow systems in soils that would never work before. When a system is being designed a "perk test:" has to be done on the soil. A hole is dug with a back hoe and the engineer/designer establishes soil conditions at different levels. Then water is poured into the hole and a timing is done to determine how long it takes for the water to leach out. I can tell you that in the civilized areas here, the clay soild conditions that you describe, especially with seasonal high water, would never pass and would require a built up mound system I must confess that I haven't fooled with systems for about 8 years and don't know the specs on the new systems that are allowed or if the new tanks are 2 chambered. I know that many of the designers are requiring filters on the outgoing side of the tank. Possibly this serves the same purpose as the 2 chamber tank. Once a year, you pull the filter out of the inspection hole on the outgoing side and hose it off. I hope that the PO finds some solution. It would be too bad to find out that money had been spent on a design that doesn't work. If it only floods on a seasonal basis, then it does sound like a design problem. If that was the case and it wasn't too terrible, I would investigate anything that might lessen the water flow to the system.....low flow fixtures....toilets, shower heads, etc. I guess I'm trying to think of ways to save someone money, but this system could be beyond that. I don't know what part of Canada the PO is in. I owned property in rural Quebec in a small towwn. I can tell you that there was no regulation (20 yrs ago) over septic systems...at least no regulation that was enforced unless it was a newly constructed building. This town was small enough that the town clerk's office was in the living room of his house and was only open 2 nights per week:-)
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First, if there is a lot of large debris in there they may not be able to pump it out. And second, if you ever go to sell the place, it would need to be fixed properly before selling (especially if someone needs to get a loan which requires an inspection). It's better to fix it right. It currently sounds like a health and safety hazard. Do it while the weather is decent. I'm not sure what zone you're in, but if the ground freezes you may not be able to address the problem. If you hire someone to put in a new tank they may need to do a percolation test to determine the absorption rate of the soil. You could be talking thousands of dollars (for removal, new tank, install, etc.) so do some homework. We had a septic tank collapse on us. We didn't really notice it, except when all the kids came home to visit we had a slight back-up through the basement floor drain in storage room. Went outside to find a soggy mess on top of the tank location and a slight indent. The septic guys came the same day to tear out the old tank and install the new. It was during the first gentle snow of the winter season.
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I think I'd consult an expert on this one rather than relying on any Internet advice. Depending on construction quality, local ordinances, and age of the system (including any weaknesses due to wear and previous accidents undisclosed), it would be difficult to impossible to tell you if any given strain would be tolerable. Now if an expert gives you the green light in writing and that turns out to be false, you can go after them. Us? Not so much. And an expert is going to be cheaper than having to replace said system or perform extensive repairs on it.
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rogerv_gw
14 years ago
If you have had a lot of rain, another possibility is that your leach field is saturated. In this case, it would need to be rested, since it couldn't absorb the liquid coming into it.

I'd get the system inspected by a reputable septic system company.

-Roger
alphonse
14 years ago
"BTW, I've lived in the house 12 years. The septic tank has never been pumped since I've been here, and don't know if the previous owner ever did.
Your thoughts? "

You are way overdue. $130-180 for a vac truck goes a long way to preventing what you describe. If the floating contents of the tank get into your leach field you have problems at the least. It just gets more expensive from there.
stgeorgerealestate_yahoo_com
13 years ago
My husband finally found the septic tank. It is scheduled for a first pumping in 18 yrs. We have religiously used the Septic bacteria cleaner from the beginning. When my husband found the septic tank lid, after 2 days of hunting, he broke the seal on the lid. He did not remove the lid but loosened it. Now sewage water has seeped up above the lid and he is sure it is because the tank is full. Doesn't the water stay full in a tank? And when he loosened the lid, wouldn't that cause the leach lines to push liquid back into the tank and seep out above the lid? We do have a little seepedge at the low part of the leach lines. However, we do not have any backing up in the house or any smells or slow drains. My husband got spooked when he discovered a little seepage. We have had a lot of rain lately and we do have coleegie soils and some clay. What do you think?
User
13 years ago
I think you're going to learn that using using septic bacteria cleaner is a waste of time and money and that not pumping your tank at prescribed intervals will cost you a lot of money.

Septic tanks fill with water only up to the inlet and outlet height of the tank. If you remove the lid and water comes out is because the water can not drain to the leach field. The leach field is either saturated with water, saturated with solids (because the tank was not routinely pumped), or a biomat has formed at the bottom of the leach field preventing the water in the field from seeping into the ground.

If you do not resolve this problem the next symptom will be water backing up from the septic tank into the home.

Get a licensed septic company in there fast.
suburbanmd
13 years ago
Or it could be due to the rain, in which case the level will go down when the ground dries out. I wouldn't panic. Some service companies (septic and others) will take advantage of panicky homeowners.

Leach field problem?

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faucetman886

hendricus

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