Septic Field odors

[YANI]

Hi,I am in the process of purchasing a rural property and have some concerns over the septic system. The system was a conventional system up until last year when they added a dry well (1 ring) to alleviate odor problems. It appears that the system is working fine (after they cleaned the tank) but occassionally you still get a sewage odor outside. There is no odor inside the home, nor was there one inside the attic when we inspected it. The reason i menition this is that the vent pipe had fallen out and was sitting in the attic. If there was a problem with the venting system one would have thought that the attic would have had an odor; which it did not. It is spring time up here with about a foot of snow left on the ground, but it is quickly melting. The groundwater is probably higher than normal and the property backs up to a creek. The odor is very intermittent and it is usually somewhere very close to the house. It isnt in any one spot but its certainly stronger in some than others. We had a well known plumber check out the problem since the inspector could not see any problems with the field (but thre is snow on the ground). Oddly enough everyone is baffled. The only culpirt to the odor that the plumber could detect was horse urine…..hard for me to beleive since i have never related that smell with that of sewage. He claims that horse urine sitting in water (as it is in melting snow) will often smell the same as sewage. Im not convinced and have asked for a substantial holdback on the purchase of the house to remedy any problems that might e discovered this spring. Any suggestions, hints, help or otherwise would be greatly appreciated. By the way i guess the old field is sorta functioning as well and they suspect it will gradually recover if it was plugged up. Thank you in advance Lynn.

[Author]

Posts