g'day sue, for me i can't see why not so long as the fruit maybe hasn't been sitting in or on the actual water in the field. there is a whole process that goes on before plants get nutrients and water from such sources (that's why grass & weed growing in these places are so lush and green good nutrient supply) so can't even imagine how any say pathogens would transfer to the flesh of the fruit, even if you thought it was on the skin it could be peeled or washed or both. we also have at least one link to a site that promotes planting over or near leech fields. and if the septic is working as it should there is a whole process that goes on in the tank before that water is expelled to the leech field. my father used to have a hole dug below the leach field and he would bucket that water to the vege' patch, also had neighbours who micro irrigated their cottage garden with the stuff right from the tank used to stink a bit but no one has suffered. reckon i would need to see hard case evidence of anyone anywhere actually getting sick from eating produce grown using this water. always an emotive issue with lots of fear hype attached. i hear the same thing about grey water use in gardens we have always used it and to date we rarely even get the common cold. len Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

This I would love a picture of. How much water are we talking about? mmarker, I have a septic tank also. What I would try first is shaving the stump down to ground level (yuck) and applying Round Up to the cut wood. Honestly you only need to spray the live outside parts of the stump but I know I couldn't resist giving it a bath like you're not supposed to. Even with out Round Up eventually the stump/roots will die. No leaves to complete the life cycle. Also, how big a darned dogwood did you have? My best personal stump work was done with a shovel and a sawzall. Over my septic field I'd hate to have any heavier equipment.

Any new, small plants can be expected to be damaged or destroyed by careless foot traffic. Dogs will also sometimes chew on them. Best to put up some fencing or other protection until shrubs large enough to fend for themselves. Twig dogwoods (Cornus stolonifera and relations) mostly grow large and sucker to form thickets, making them perhaps not the best choice. This depends on if you really need to keep large shrubs out of the area or not. Assuming you do, I would try small, compact twiggy things like the various Spiraea japonica cultivars (and maybe some other spiraeas), as well as shrubby potentilla cultivars (I have seen Potentilla fruticosa growing wild in the middle of a stream in the Rockies). These are comparatively inexpensive, easily found in nurseries and easily grown. However, being small and brittle they will work for you only if the foot traffic and rough-housing can be curbed enough to permit this. There are many other kinds of shrubs suitable for damp places, for example if you like winter stems the new Cornus sanguinea cultivars are hard to beat. Some others posting similar questions on this site have been told they didn't have to worry about their drainfield being adversely impacted, in which case you would only have to choose plants that seem likely to grow in that spot, same as any other planting scheme. I think this depends on the details of your particular setup. You might try searching GardenWeb for "drainfield".

Most jurisdictions in Tx have similar rules about disallowing plumbers to repair conventnal septic systems. The solution is "Arobic Septic Systems". Manufactures advertise that treated water is safe to drink ( I'm not convinced ). At any rate the treated water is normally sprinkled on yard. Yes,all those agencys would likly have a hissy fitt on finding out about your system.