Septic system back pumping to remove water from a flooded or saturated drainfield is a service offered by some septic contractors.

In our opinion back-pumping septic fields is ineffective, possibly harmful, and is not a recommended procedure. It certainly will not fix a flooded nor failed septic drainfield or soakbed.

What is Septic System Back-Pumping & Is it Useful?

Some septic tank pumping or cleanout companies offer a "septic drainfield back-pumping" service or septic system "back-pumping" that claims to remove flood waters from a septic drainfield.

Back-pumping involves accessing a flooded septic drainfield piping network, perhaps through a distribution box or even at the septic tank, to remove flood-waters.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Watch out: back-pumping a flooded drainfield is not useful, will not correct the underlying problem - a failed septic leach field or soakaway bed, or one that was not properly designed in the first place.

It is also possible that back-pumping a septic field actually damages the field by increasing the rate at which surface or subsurface runoff will enter and flood the fields in wet weather in the future.

Hydrojetting a flooded drainfield also will not fix the drainfield or soakaway and may actually precipitate a total failure of the septic system.

Signs of a Flooded, Failed Septic Drainfield

How can you tell if a septic drainfield is flooded and in failure? Here are some indicators:

• Standing water or effluent on the septic leach field or soakaway or soakbed or drainfield area.
  
  See details at SEPTIC FAILURE EVIDENCE, VISUAL
• Abnormally-high sewage levels in the septic tank
  
  Details are at SEPTIC TANK LEVELS of SEWAGE
• Back-flow of effluent out of the drainfield and back into the septic tank during or after septic tank pumpout or cleanout services have been performed.
  
  See details at SEPTIC TANK BACK FLOODING
• Sluggish building drains or drain noises such as a burbling or "glub blub" sound heard at plumbing fixtures
• Sewage backup into the building (may be from various causes)
• Sewage odors in the building (may be from various causes)
  
  See SEPTIC ODORS

If your septic drainfields are flooded the system cannot properly treat sewage effluent. Even if there are no back-ups of sewage in the building, your system is not working properly if it is flooded, even if flooding only occurs seasonally during wet weather.

A septic engineer is needed to help assess the problem and to help you decide if the existing system can be repaired or if more-extensive modifications are needed.

Question: septic pumper said drainfield was not working & says he "fixed" it by back-pumping the drainfield lines

I searched high and low on your website and the internet in general and can not find any info specifically on back pumping a drain field line. Here is my situation:

We have had above average rain here in GA, second wettest on record.

I had a septic tank company come JUST to do a normal pumping and I was told that the drain field was not draining properly (never mind that we had had no problems).

He put the camera inside the drain field pipe to show me all the fluid in the line, and therefore the “urgent need” to treat the line.

I wasn't thinking at the time, that it might be water from all of the heavy rains. He made me think it was urgent to do something about it immediately (a tactic I have since learned that this company got into trouble with GA state for). He back pumped (sucked) the drain field system for 30 minutes, jetted the drain field and then applied the bio chemical stuff.

Could this process, especially the back pumping have damaged my drain field, especially since the ground was thoroughly saturated?

Could mud have been sucked into the drain filed line, and how would I know it, by what kind of inspection? - Anonymous by private email 2019/01/20

Reply: back pumping a flooded drainfield line and jetting afterwards will not fix a septic drainfield that fails due to area flooding

Thanks for asking, Anonymous.

You didn't find any material on "back-pumping a drainfield line" because that is not a term that I have come across.

Worse, there is no magic bullet, no "back pumping", no chemical treatment, that fixes the problem of a flooded (and thus failed) septic drainfield or soakaway bed.

Furthermore, there is even less benefit (except to the contractor's pocket book) from paying someone to try to pump effluent back out of the drainfield through the drainfield leach lines.

Our illustration, adapted from Scherer (2011) illustrates a proper septic system drainfield design - above the seasonal high groundwater level. [Click to enlarge any image]

Details are at FLOODED SEPTIC SYSTEMS, REPAIR

My point is that if your septic drainfield or soakaway is under water even just for part of the year, during that time the system is not working properly, is discharging sewage to the environment (and possibly into local wells or streams and lakes) and is a bad design.

When a drainfield is flooded and thus back-flowing into the septic tank, water in soils around the drainfield run into the drainfield trenches and ultimately back into the septic tank.

Pumping out some volume of water from the trenches themselves simply makes new room for more surface or subsurface runoff water to flow back into the trenches. It's not fixing anything.

Watch out: "Jetting drainfields" is an old, popular magic bullet for which I have found essentially not one authoritative, unbiased, credible study showing any lasting benefit.

"Back pumping" meaning pumping drainfield trench effluent back out (perhaps through a D-box or through a septic tank) would not be expected to particularly damage the drainfield though I can think of some subtle ways in which damage might occur - depending on just how pumping was done.

Watch out: but in fact depending on soil type and site conditions back pumping as well as hydrojetting may actually damage the septic drainfield.

For example I've seen cases of pumping out water from beneath a building (in an effort to stop basement water entry) actually make the problem worse.

That happens when the pump-out removes soil fines, thus enlarging underground passageways through which water flowed right back into the pumped-out area. The effect was to actually increase the water flow into the area.

You need an on-site, credible, septic design engineer to assess the design of the present system, the seasonal high water table, the direction of surface and subsurface runoff, and to help you decide on a proper fix that ranges from improving surface runoff control, through subsurface intercept drains, to a new raised bed or mound drainfield.

Reader follow-up: report from Georgia Attorney General about deceptive septic pumping practices

Thanks for your reply.

I figured that if there were no references to back pumping a drain field line that it wasn’t something that is normally done, and apparently rarely done except by con men.

They made this same claim of problems with the drain field line in 2011 when we first purchased the home and it sat “resting” for many weeks and during a drought (which I understand would have cleared up any problem if there was one) when we called just to have it pumped and they told us there were problems with the drain filed line.

From what I have learned there are basically two ways to know if you have a real problems, a back-up or water standing in the yard---we never had either, nor sluggish drains.

After this time, I started to realize that we had been taken, started doing research and found the following court order from 2016 about their tactics.

The BBB currently has 41 complaints and YELP has over 100.

We never had a problem either time, they just made it all up to get $3,900.00 the first time and $2,800.00 recently.

If you can, please post this to help warn people---they are still doing it--- or if not, if you know anyone living where they operate in GA, FL (and TX I think) pass it on. Thanks!

Pink Plumber to Pay $102,000 in Restitution and Penalties to Settle Claims of Deceptive Advertising

Excerpt:

ATLANTA, GA- Attorney General Sam Olens today announced that Aames Heating and Plumbing, Inc. d/b/a The Pink Plumber and its owner Geoffrey Gillon have entered into an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance with the State of Georgia to resolve allegations that the company violated Georgia’s Fair Business Practices Act.

Following an investigation of The Pink Plumber, the State alleged that the company regularly advertised septic pumping services for a price of $195 or less, when the actual price consumers were charged was consistently higher.

It also routinely represented that certain expensive services and products, namely “hydro jetting” and additive treatments, were necessary and of benefit when, according to various regulatory agencies, those services and products are of questionable benefit, at best, and may even cause damage to septic systems.

Additionally, the company represented that certain of its employees could perform services that they were not certified to do. - August 4, 2016

- Original source: PINK PLUMBER TO PAY ... [PDF] Georgia Department of Law, Consumer Protection Division, Attorney General of Georgia, 2 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Suite 356 Atlanta, Georgia 30334-9077 USA, Website: http://consumer.georgia.gov Tel: 404-651-8600 or 1-800-869-1123 (toll-free in Georgia, outside of the metro Atlanta calling area)
http://consumer.georgia.gov/news/press-releases/view/pink-plumber-to-pay-102-000-in-restitution-and-penalties-to-settle-claims-of-deceptive-advertising

...

Continue reading  at FLOODED SEPTIC SYSTEMS, REPAIR or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

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• FLOODED SEPTIC SYSTEMS, REPAIR
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• SEPTIC SYSTEM BACK-PUMPING
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