Septic Problems

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

Septic/Leach Field Question.
My home is 30 years old. Septic Tank is only 3 years old.
I have had NO problembs in the past 3years except normal
Yealry Tank Pumping.
Rencently my tank has backed up. I have had this tank drained 4 times
in the Last month.
I asked several people about my leaching fields and
I have found i have no “Symptoms” of a bad leaching field
No Lumpy Ground.
No Grass that looks super fertalized.
No Oders.

I am curious if there is any product that would assist in
breaking up any blockage into my leaching fields.

When my tank was drained Water poured in from my leaching fields pipe.
We all assumed, Snow, Rain, for an extended period of time may have
” Saterated” my land and fields.

Any suggestions ?

[John Aldrich1Participant]

Trev Thorpe, the most probable reason that your septic system is failing is that it is designed to fail. The septic tank effluent will flow in the path of least resistance. Apparently, in your situation, that path is the sewer pipe back into your home. This is why there are no wet spots in your yard.

The clogging mat that forms at the gravel/soil interface in your leach field has grown to a depth sufficient to slow the percolation rate of the water through it to the point where the application rate exceeds the percolation rate. The only practical method to control the thickness of the clogging mat is to withhold the food supply (i.e. the nutrients in the septic tank effluent flow) from the microbial critters of which it is composed.

Install another leach field, and a diversion valve between the old and new fields. Also install monitoring and ventilation ports in each field. Annually, on the 4th of July (Sewage Independenc Day), divert the effluent flow from field #1 to field #2. The result of his action is that the field which has been in use, and is probably saturated, will become unsaturated, and substance which will replace of the water is air. Field #2 will now receive the septic tank effluent.

The atmospheric air (which is 21% oxygen)is drawn down into the leach field through the ventilation ports as the water slowly percolates through the clogging mat into the soil. Ferrous sulfide, an iron compound created in the septic tank by microbial digestion, is a constituent of the clogging mat. It is that black slimy crap at the bottom of the leach field. The Ferrous sulfide will be reduced through oxidation. The ecosystem changes from one that is anaerobic (without oxygen) to one that is aerobic (oxygen present). The aerobic microorganisms will move in when the conditions become aerobic, and they consume the organic materials which are the remaining constituents of the clogging mat.

Every soil absorption system should be designed utilizing alternating leach fields, in fact alternating leach fields should be a regulatory requirement, but then I should be taller. JWA

[GuestParticipant]

Do you know what type of leach field you have, conventional, chamber?

[Author]

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