Q&A about what causes a septic system failure?

This septic system diagnosis article explains the causes of septic system failure in the drain field, leach field, seepage bed, or similar component.

We list the causes of each type of septic component failure, and list the septic component failure criteria or in other words what conditions are defined as "failure"?

We also discuss what can be planted over and near a septic drainfield and what should be avoided.

How can you distinguish between a blocked pipe, a septic tank that needs pumping, and a clogged drainfield that needs replacement? T

his is an important question as it distinguishes between relatively low cost maintenance or repair task and a costly septic leach field replacement.

Page top photos: if those tire tracks, more-visible in light snow, are over the septic drainfield, we will be worried that vehicle traffic may have compressed the soil or even broken a septic drainfield line, causing a septic drainfield or soakaway bed failure.

Septic Absorption Field Failure Cause FAQs

These questions and answers about the causes of sewage wastewater disposal field failures were posted originally

at SEPTIC DRAINFIELD FAILURE CAUSES - please review that article too.

Digging in yard uncovered infiltrator septic that now floods up to ground level

I was digging in my yard and accidently uncovered the end of an infiltrator leaching chamber and water instantly came seeping up.

The water rose to ground level and I could not stop the leak.

I had the septic tank drained (it was time anyway) and after speaking to the septic service crew they thought that after the tank was drained I should be able to fill in the dirt and the leak should stop.

As far as i could tell the leaching chamber was not damaged.

I filled the hole back in with dirt and thought it was fixed. Unfortunately the ground still has water seeping up from the buried leaching chamber.

For the most part the hole remains wet and occasionally has areas of standing water. Do you have any advice on how to repair this? On 2020-11-12 by Jeremy Jones -

Reply by (mod) - Infiltrator chamber septic system layout & failure

Jeremy

I'm a little concerned that the floor of your infiltrator leaking chamber may be clogging.

Anytime you see effluent leaking into the surface of the yard that usually indication the disposal system is not working.

But before doing anything expensive why not give Infiltrator Water Technologies a call to see what they suggest - and do let me know what you're told as that may help other readers.

Infiltrator Water Technologies
4 Business Park Road
P.O. Box 768
Old Saybrook, CT 06475 USA
(800) 221-4436
Website:
https://www.infiltratorwater.com/

For other readers we attach a photo from Infiltrator showing a typical system installation.

hinking outside of the box: install vent pipes down to a "too deep" drainfield? Add a lot of soil?

Thanks for the quick response (and apologies for my delayed follow up). [Photo above]

Assuming you could safely cover the leach field with additional soil without driving on it - and assuming the area would never be driven on, would there be any way to improve oxygenation? I have seen "oxygen tablets" that can be flushed into your septic system which claim to do this.

Thinking outside of the box - maybe some sort of vent pipe down to the leach field depth? Maybe loose rock over the leech field with top soil over that?

I'm attaching a photo of the house I current have under construction. In the photo you see the garage and a steep downhill to a grassy area. The driveway to the garage comes from the front of the house and hugs the side all the way down.

The leach field is in the grassy area at the lowest elevation (a corner marker can be seen just left of the center of the photo)... the leach field begins at the bottom of the downhill in front of the garage.

The issue I'm facing is that we have to bring in more fill to bring the driveway up to height so that we can enter the garage.

The higher we make the driveway the steeper the hill down to the edge of the leach field making a literal cliff for us to drive off of. I would very much like to have a soft downhill from the driveway/garage elevation down to the grass level.

It would never be driven on, but would look better and be safer as there would be no "sudden drop". Can this be accomplished without sacrificing the ability of the leach field to do it's job? On 2020-10-17 by Brad - T

Reply by (mod) - deep-buried drainfields don't work well

Brad

I have found no trusted expert source nor research that supports your nevertheless interesting idea of burying a drainfield and then trying to get oxygen to it.

Bottom line is if you bury the drainfield as you describe it may successfully "dispose" of septic effluent but it is not going to successfully treat its pathogens as it will only support anaerobic soil bacteria and not the also-needed aerobic soil bacteria.

Discuss with your excavator how to grade the site and stabililze the fill along the drive, perhaps with a retaining wall, so that you can have a comfortable access to the garage without having to build the septic drainfield all over again.

Watch out: take care that no one drives equipment over the existing drainfield during construction and sitework.

How to kill weeds over the septic tank

We want to kill all the weeds growing over the tank and field and plant grass and clover. Can we lay down black plastic sheet for one season to kill the weeds and seeds in the soil? On 2019-05-17 by Samadhi

Reply by (mod) -

Samadhi:

Plastic over the area of the septic tank itself won't interfere with septic operation - as long as you're not putting plastic over the drain field area you should be okay.

 

On 2019-05-05 by BrianElectric company drove their truck over our septic drainfield - one pipe is dented - is thi sa problem?

My leach bed was drove on by a electric company truck. I dug down to the plastic leach bed things. One section is dented down 4 inches or so. Will this cause me problems with my leach bed? On 2019-05-17 by Samadhi

Reply by (mod) - will a dented or crushed leachfield pipe cause me trouble

Brian:

The risks include blockage of part of the septic drainfield, thus reducing its capacity to handle effluent in volume and shortening its life, and also possibly further line collapse and blockage. Also the soil itself is compacted by driving over the fields.

Details are at DRIVING OVER SEPTIC SYSTEMS

When it rains our toilets gurgle and back up - is this a septic failure?

My home/septic system is just over 3 years old with no problems until we had heavy rain in the middle of November. Toilets gurgling woke us up and both toilets were backed up. I thought we had some kind of blockage, so I snaked the lines. Within the hour I could flush the toilets.

Had no idea what had caused it. On Dec 9th it rained hard again, same scenario, gurgling, water backing up into toilet bowl. This time I checked cleanout and water was within 7 inches of the top of the cleanout.

I live in Georgia and the red clay dirt doesn't perc very well. I'm getting a copy of the perc test before I contact the General and Septic contractors.

After reading up on it, I'm convinced that my leach field is not percolating as it should or that part of the leach field has collapsed. No wast water above ground, but did notice a depression in my back yard in the area of the leach field. On 2018-12-10 by Les Hubbard

Reply by (mod) - gurgling toilets and backing up drains mean drainfield trouble

Les

Sorry to say it sounds like you're probably right.

Water may be flooding the drainfield, septic tank, or both. That means that the design or installation of the system is improper - not placed above the seasonal high water table or not protected from surface runoff.

Can excessive rain cause a drainage feel failure

Can excessive rain cause a drainage feel failure? On 2019-01-30 by Steve

Reply by (mod) - Rain doesn't cause a drainfield to fail. But there may also be an original installation error or a drainfield that has already failed

Steve

Thanks for asking an important question - can heavy rain cause a septic drainfield to fail? - that needs clarification.

Heavy rainfall that causes soil erosion that damages a raised bed septic or septic mound system could in that situation cause a "failure" but such failures would not normally occur once a raised be or mound construction is complete and is secured by grass growth that holds soil against erosion.

Only when the field is brand new and exists as raw exposed dirt might I expect such a problem.

For an existing, in-use septic drainfield, once it has been covered by protective grass or similar growth on its surface, I would say rather that heavy rain can cause a failed, or improperly-designed and installed drainfield failure to show up.

Rain doesn't cause a drainfield to fail.

A septic leachfield, drainfield, or soakaway - depending on what one calls it - to work properly must be designed and built so as to be above the seasonal high water table and to be protected from surface runoff.

Entire non gravel, leach field has collapsed. Why?

Our entire conventional, non gravel, leach field has collapsed. It looks like three rows about 18 plus inches deep.

Any idea why? Nothing had driven over it besides a lawn tractor. It is only 1 and a half years installed. On 2018-02-28 by Mags

Reply by (mod) - why would a new drainfield collapse?

Since you describe the drain field as new I would be surprised if the pipes actually work collapsed.

Perhaps there was inadequate backfill and you're simply seeing soil settlement.

But of course I can't possibly know from Annie text just what's going on underground at your property.

It is possible that the gravelless drainfield was improperly-installed or damaged by being driven-over during backfill.

Ultimately we'll need to dig up a collapsed section to see what's happening.

My advice is to go to a representative spot and actually excavate down through a cross-section of the trench in order to see what's going on. Attach some photos and text to let me know what you find. You can use the picture frame icon next to the comment box to attach an image or two.

Read up on your septic design at GRAVELLESS SEPTIC SYSTEMS so you'll perhaps be more familiar with the products and installation methods used when you talk with your contractor.

Can dogs digging up the septic mound cause trouble?

My husband was told that the dogs digging on top of the raised septic mound will destroy the fingers, clogging them up. Is this true? On 2017-12-16 by Angie B.

Reply by (mod) - Yes, Digging up the septic mound might damage it

Angie,

Digging up the septic mound might damage it by damaging pipes, damaging a geotextile cover over pipes to avoid soil clogging of the pipes, or by removing required soil cover.

Then there's the health hazard of dogs tracking sewage effluent into your home.

Bad dogs!

Gurgling noise in the sewer line and septic tank flooded: we brought in more dirt. Have we fixed the problem?

We have lived in our home for over 15 year. Our septic system has never given us any trouble.

Open yard with nothing to impede it's efficiency. Pumped regularly & well built. Never any seapage in the yard. Never any smell.

We had 2 very hard rains - unusual for us. Both times, we could hear the gurgling in the pipe that leads out of the house into the system. We could tell the tank was full - and the water unable to go anywhere. We had it pumped both times.

Advised to bring in some dirt to level our laterals - and since then- all has been ok -but no hard hard rain like before. Is it likely we have solved our problem? On 2017-09-19 by K Hen

Reply by (mod) - No,

K

Because your septic system is buried - and thus can't be seen - the fact that it never gave you any trouble, unfortunately, doesn't mean that the system has an infinite life

If the system is flooding in wet weather that's just when an old, near-end-of-life septic may show its condition by becoming saturated and back-flowing into the septic tank.

A septic tank is normally always full, except for a few days after pumping.

Adding dirt on top of the existing fields might hide the problem for a time, but at potentially great costs including

- backup of sewage into your home

- discharge of untreated sewage into nearby wells, lakes sterams

Adding dirt won't fix a flooding nor blocked drainfield.

Adding dirt reduces the ability of the drainfield to dispose of a portion of the effluent by transpiration (evaporation up through the soil into air) so you're reducing its capacity and shortening its life.

I would budget for a field replacement in any case. But before launching on such a project I'd investigate further - with actual objective data (I know that's unusual in our current government but that's still a better approach). That means

- open the D-box to see if it's flooding there; sometimes you'll find that just one line is giving trouble and you can stop using it; but if you see that all of the lines have standing water out of the D-box the field is flooded.

- check the piping beween septic tank and D-box and D-box and leach lines for collapse or blockage; sometimes we get lucky and there's simply a broken line to repair, giving some more life to the fields.

Our septic smells and floods - what did we do wrong?

We installed new lateral line pipes, due to the old ones collapsing.

The smallest amount of water being drained and a 4ft by 5ft puddle appears in our yard.

The smell is horrible. Sewage smell is embarrassing and makes outdoor activities impossible. Can we build a gravel/dirt mound over the puddle to fix the odor issue?

We have a hill septic system. we have lived here 21 years and constructed 2 new systems and now it is failing again. what are we doing wrong - On 2016-11-16 by Anonymous

Reply by (mod) -

Anon

I don't have a clear understanding of the situation. If the leak is from the new system then there is something wrong that needs to be found and fixed just covering effluent at the surface night hide the symptom but it wouldn't fix the failure or blockage

Is the Huddle you're describing is from the prior failure there should be no sewage effluent going into that area now. If that's true it should dry up on its own.

We see a puddle in the middle of our septic drainfield area - and it smells.

We purchased a home built in 1969 which has a septic (I do not know if this home had the septic replaced at anytime or not, prior to our purchase).

A busy family of four lives here and during heavy use - periods of time, it leaches slightly forming a small puddle on the surface of the grassy area - that appears to be the end of the tank (where the leaching pit would be). The puddle is only about 1 foot across in total size - if that.

Another note of mention is that at times when we turn on our bathroom taps - we get an unpleasant odor. On 2016-10-27 by Corinna

Reply by (mod) - signs of drainfield failure

Puddle forming in the drainfield area is an indication of drainfield failiure - but without a bit of exploring we don't know if it's a small local issue such as a clogged or broken drainfield line or a saturation and failure of the whole field.

Odors at the tap are a different issue - search InspectApedia for SULPHUR ODORS in WATER SUPPLY for details.

Brand new septic system failed: Is my installer correct with this diagnosis

Our system is 6 wks old, within the forth wk i noticed a small puddle grow into a 6 inch diameter one over night. My installer says he sent a couple guys out & repaired it (he said a line came loose).

Within 24hrs the same thing occured, only now the hole is a bit bigger in diameter as they didn't cover it back up all the way (i have a mound of dirt about 40 ft away from my entire septic system they could've used) my installer now says i need to put out grass seed to correct the problem,

my home is new but i had grass growing already when system was installed, i would say 75% of my drain field has grass on it now after they dug up yd to install system.

Is my installer correct with this diagnosis, he himself hasn't been out, he sent two guys out that supposedly repair my issue, occording to my neighbor they showed up in a sports car got out with 1 shovel. They were suppose to call me so i could meet them, only to called me when they were done & gone. On 2016-06-18 by Sammy-

Reply by (mod)

Sammy

OPINION: From your description I think your septic contractor is full of baloney.

Planting grass is certainly not a proper nor effective repair for a break or leak in sewer piping that's causing sewage wastewater to form puddles in the yard.

Adding more dirt and seed might be a very temporary band-aid but the required fix is to find and fix the problem with the piping: improper connections, improper slope, improper backfill, damaged piping, collapsing piping, or improperly constructed drainfield that is backing up into the piping system.

Check the conditions in the distribution box: if that's flooded the problem may be more than a broken pipe between tank and fields.

Will putting raised bed bardens over the septic cause a problem?

Will putting a couple of raised gardens (using landscaping material on the bottoms of them to prevent rooting) on the leachfield be a problem seeing that there will be plenty of uncovered area for evaporation? - On 2016-04-28 by Bill -

Reply by (mod) - Yes: don't put raised bed gardens on top of the leachfield

Good question, Bill.

I am not an authority - those are your local code officials.

OPINION

But I think that the original, approved design of any septic system includes the layout and overall size of the drainfield or absorption system.

When you cover part of that area with anything - even more feet of soil - that reduces the transpiration rate (movement of effluent moisture into the air above the fields) you are reducing the field's effluent handling volume and thus its effectiveness.

Actually *measuring* the amount of that impact is difficult, as we don't know the proportions of moisture disposal into air vs. into the ground below. I think that's why people don't try to figure it out, they simply apply "safe" rules.

You could probably install raised gardens, prevent root intrusion, reduce the efficiency or effectiveness of the drainfield, and see no effect for years. But the ultimate costs could be earlier field failure and costly replacement, or a shift in effluent disposal balance that inadvertently contaminates groundwater in your area.

Details about this topic are found by searching InspectApedia.com for PLANTING OVER SEPTIC SYSTEMS using the search box just above or at the top of any InspectApedia page.

Thanks for asking.

Septic tank has to be pumped out every 3 days; Landlord "repaired" the system withoug health department supervision

Hello, my girlfriend and I rent a place and the septic tank needs to be pumped out every 3 days. Immediately after the system is pumped we can see and hear water running into the tank. The person who does the pumping was asked to install a field bed by the landlord.

His reply was that he will need the health department present during the installation. The landlord promptly disagreed to having him install the field bed. Should this house have been rented in the first place? On 2016-03-26 by Mark

Reply by (mod) -

Mark:

Pumping a septic tank will never, ever fix a failed drainfield, nor will it fix a problem of groundwater running into the septic tank. All it will do is waste your money, exhaust the septic pumping company (and make them rich), and risk sewage backups into the home (unsafe and un-sanitary).

It is not required to have health department officials present all during the installation of a drainfield or soakbed, but in most jurisdictions it *is* indeed necessary to file a plan, obtain health department approval, and to install the system as designed and approved.

And in some jurisdictions the health department inspector will make one or more septic inspections during the system installation.

That may not be the case during a septic "repair" but in my OPINON putting in a new drainfield is "new work" and should be approved.

The question of rent-ability of your home is a legal one (I attended but didn't finish law school and can't answer in depth) but my lay person (I'm not an attorney) is that most rental contracts require that the property be "habitable". If you can't flush a toilet, I would not consider that habitable.

Search InspectApedia for HELP FOR RENTERS - that article series discusses mold contamination but the suggestions (put concerns in writing, involve the health department if necessary) pertain.

Our newly built house septic system floods regularly - who can help us?

We bought our house in the fall of 2008, but it was built in the summer of 2006 as a spec. So it sat, unoccupied for just over one year. From the day we moved in and started using the water, the system flooded regularly, especially during the wet season.

The builder came back and installed drainage tiles on the wet side of the system and we are still having the problem. We pump the system regularly and don't use excessive amounts of water. What are the possible problems and who should we contact for help? On 2016-02-24 by S

Reply by (mod) -

Best to get help from a septic design engineer. She will look at the approved plan, site and soil conditions, and may also want to use a camera to inspect the lines.

We don't know yet if the problem is damage to the piping or fields, a blockage, ir bad design such as placing the fields in wet soils or too close to the high groundwater level.

Don't try costly repairs before we think we know the problem.

Keep me posted - Daniel

Water comes out of the edges of our septic field when it rains and I hear the septic pump running - what's wrong?

After to prolong periods of hard rain water is coming out several places at the edge of the field I hear pump come on and water starts coming out - On 2015-12-11 by dan

Reply by (mod) - drainfield has flooded from rainwater;

Dan:

It sounds as if your drainfield has flooded from rainwater; I don't know what pump you are discussing.

But it sounds like an effluent pump sending septic effluent from the septic tank to a raised bed or mound septic system (drainfield).

So if that pump runs when it rains, rainwater is entering the septic tank as well as flooding your drainfield

The system is not working and might need replacement. It certainly at least needs repair.

Ultimately a better fix will be to direct surface runoff away from the fields.

Question: state road work causes problems for drainfield?

Many years ago our parents sold approximately 40 feet of the west end of our home's property so that the state could put in a frontage road.

The soil that was brought in to raise the frontage road about 6 feet above the land's original elevation and a culvert that was installed under that frontage road appears to have blocked the drainage of our property. Is that possible?

Our septic drain field, located within the area that is now flooding frequently, is therefore not working correctly. The state has been contacted about whether the culvert is set too high to allow our property to drain, but they say that is no problem.

Any advice on how to get the state's attention? It seems to me that by blocking our property with a six foot berm topped by a frontage road and installing a culvert that doesn't drain the property would cause the septic drain field to become saturated by rainwater and is causing our problem of a wet drainage field, but I'm no engineer. (Aug 29, 2014) Dawn said:

Reply:

Dawn you may be correct IF the blockage leaves an accumulation of surface runoff atop your drainfield, or mistaken if the drainfield is saturated because of other failure causes. You may want to hire a local septic engineer or civil engineer to inspect the site, diagnose the drainage issue, prepare appropriate drawings and a report on proper remedy.

Keep us posted

Question: plans to zero-scape our yard with Egg Rock - ok to put it over the septic field?

I live in South Florida with very sandy soil. My Wife and I want to zero scape our yard with Egg rock. We have a 22' X 25' drain field in the area we we want to place the rock. Any ideas about placing about 2" of rock over the field.
Thanks.
Would like to place an inch or two of egg rock over my drain field, will this hurt the drain field in any way? This is sandy soil,in full sun most of the year, and there will only be wheel barrow traffic on it until the rock is spread. This is about 500 sf of drain field, 22x25. Installed in 2013. Thanks David (Oct 3, 2014) Davis said:

Reply:

Davis

What I'd be nervous about is driving equipment over the septic field, destroying it.

We replied to this elsewhere as well as by email. Driving equipment over the field to place rock risks damaging it. But gentle hand work as described should not. Finally, however, removing grass covering reduces the soil transpiration and moisture uptake rate so might reduce the fields ability to dispose of effluent.

(Oct 7, 2014) Anonymous said:
No driving of equipment over the field, just a wheel barrow. Will placing about 1 1/2 to 2" of egg rock compromise the field in any way?

Oct 19, 2014) Anonymous said:
There is currently no grass over the field, just sand. I think we will plant a garden of some sort over the field. Flowers and such, nothing edible . Again thank you for your help.
David

Reply:

Sounds as if you're ok. An authoritative answer would, of course, come from the design engineer to designed the specific septic system in question as s/he would know the details.

Be sure to see PLANTS & TREES OVER SEPTIC SYSTEMS

 

Question: ok to store a boat over the septic field?

Okay, nothing over the septic field....what about storing a boat? (Oct 1, 2015) Anonymous said:

Reply: yes if you don't drive over the field

Anon: a boat supported on a dolly, if it is not heavy enough to crush soils or drainfield trenches, would not be likely to be a problem, but driving onto the fields to park or remove the boat could damage the fields.

 

Question: what do you do when you have a seeping drain field?

Judy said:

what do you do when you have a seeping drain field?

Reply:

Judy:

Pumping the septic tank MIGHT give a few days (not more) of relief and slow the seepage down in some cases but not all of them. You need an on-site septic expert to diagnose the trouble an d then give recommendations on repair. The possible causes are varied, as the article above notes.

See SEPTIC DRAINFIELD INSPECTION & TEST - home - for diagnosing what's wrong before you opt for a costly repair.

 

Question: I want to fix the drainfield with chemicals

Can't I just pour a drainfield restorer chemical into the toilet to fix the seeping drainfield?

Reply:

Vicki:

While there are treatments sold that purport to cure or restore a failed drainfield, after years of work in this area I've yet to find an independent research study that confirmed that they actually work reliably; worse, some treatments are toxic or caustic and harmful to the environment - and thus are illegal to use in most jurisdictions.

See details at SEPTIC TREATMENTS & CHEMICALS

 

How do I know the septic tank is full?

The tank is supposed to be full. How are you measuring that it is full? On 2012-11-24 by full tank?

Reply by (mod) -

Thanks for the comment, full tank. You are correct.

Troy,

A working septic tank is always full up to the bottom of the tank outlet pipe. It is inspected through an access cover at the outlet End of the tank.

If tank levels are above the outlet pipe or over the outlet tee or baffle top the tank is flooded and you've got a blocked outlet line or floods drain field.

Watch out: don't lean over or enter a septic tank - you can be overcome by methane gas fumes - that can be fatal. Never work alone. Get help from a trained septic contractor.

Our septic system backed up, pumping didn't fix it, we need a new drainfield; can we just add a filter?

Our septic system is backed up, we had the septic tank pumped and within a month it was full again we've had 3 different companies to come and inspect each has said or implied drainage field replacement but after researching i've come to the knowlege that if it were the drain field that i woud see evidence such as standing water, sluge etc. but we have none of these.

QUESTION: are there filter in a septic system and what other alternative is there than a drain field replacement? On 2012-01-15 by Troy -

Reply by DF:

Filters add drain field life to a working septic system, but adding filters (or chemicals) won't fix a failed field.

We don't always see standing water on the ground when a septic drainfield has failed - depending on its depth, site slope, and other terrain features.

But if we see flooding in the D-box and or septic tank that indicates either a blocked line or a failing field. Better diagnostics: look into the D-box.

See

• SEPTIC DRAINFIELD INSPECTION & TEST - home
• SEPTIC DISPOSAL FIELD CLOGGING INSPECTION
  
• SEPTIC DRAINFIELD FAILURE CAUSES

 

How do we get the weeds off of our drainfield?

We have a huge drain field full of weeds. I was wondering what kind of equipment we can to make it easier and more efficient to get rid of the weeds so we can plant a lawn?
Thanks Leah On 2012-05-20 by Leah H.

Reply by (mod) -

Leah, most shallow-rooted grasses and weeds don't themselves usually damage the drainfield, but if you want a nice lawn and intend to do so by removing all of the weeds using a machine, it needs to be light enough not to compact the soil or break a drainfield pipe.

A small lightweight walk-behind garden tractor might work.

Remember to re-seed with suitable shallow-rooted grass - a critical part of protecting the drainfield from erosion and helping its process of transpiration.

See SEPTIC SYSTEMS, PLANTS OVER

Drainage from the road and a neighbor come onto our drainfield: what do we do - a swale?

The county where I live constructed a new road way system in front of the house. In doing so they removed a shell road that ran in front of 10 houses and replaced with a separate driveway from each house to the new road. All of the houses are on septic. The house has an original drive slopping down from the house.

The county's new drive to the house slopes down so that a "v" is created where the two drives meet and the county created a swale at the "v" to drain rain water coming down from the road and down from the house to the water runoff sewer.

The problem is that the grass in front of the house remains consistently wet (where the septic tank is) and the water is not draining at the "V". Before the construction this never happened. I hired a septic company, they drained the septic tank and told me that the county cut into 2 feet of the drainfield and placed the concrete drive on top of it.

Additionally by code they said the county is not allowed to place a swale within 15 feet of a drainfield. I am not sure what to do since the county is not responding. They came out once to change the pitch of the drainage at the "v" but that didn't work.

Additionally drainage is coming across the drive from the neighbor to the north. Are you familiar with code requirements of whether you can place a swale created for rain water runoff next to a septic drainfield and what the distance requirement might be? Also couldn't the back up of rain water cause the septic system to backup because the drainfield remains soaked? On 2011-09-27 by Frustration with Drainage

Reply by (mod) -

Frustration,

Local codes on distance from swale and street drainage to septic may vary, though at this site we do provide a table of typicalmseptic clearances.

But you need to get a responsible county authority out to see your site so that you can point out the problem they have caused and ask that it be corrected. A flooded drainfield is a health concern.

Buying a house we see a sinkhole - could that be a bad septic?

We are in the process of buying our first house. The house we just recently looked at, the grass above the septic is really long and really dark green and the grass around the rest of the area is shorter and yellowish color.

Also, the septic kind of sits on top of a hill and has a mound, then about 10 feet from the mound is a sink hole. Could that be a sign of a bad septic?

The septic was approved for operation on 06/04/2003, so it's not that old. On 2011-08-04 by Anonymous

Reply by (mod) -

Watch out: That SINK HOLE is an IMMEDIATE SAFETY CONCERN in that you could have a dangerous condition. If someone falls into a subsiding hole in the ground it could certainly be fatal. Rope off the area and have an expert investigate the problem. For more information see our article titled

SINKHOLES, WARNING SIGNS - found by using the on-page search box to search InspectApedia.com for that phrase

Greener grass over the septic tank is not necessarily a failure clue but it could be if the tank is backing up and leaking out into its surrounding soils. A septic contractor/inspector can open the tank and check for normal fluid levels, evidence of flooding or backup, etc.

That's what I'd recommend. Don't buy a house with a septic system before first doing your due diligence or without at least allowing for a possibly costly septic system repair or replacement.

A 2003 septic - sounds pretty new but I've seen brand new systems fail - a lot depends on the quality of workmanship and details of installation.

A broken or clogged pipe, failure to install as designed, installation subject to groundwater flooding, omission of gravel in gravel-trenches, improper line pitch, etc. are all snafus that can happen with a new system.

How do I test a one year old septic tank-

How do I test a one year old septic tank--construction of a home the owner complains that "

There must be a leak (in the Septic tank)because when it rains the pump is going off every 2-3 minutes (even during the night when no water is being used)"

This is a high water table site and the home has a basement that is 7' deep. The tank was checked by the installer twice after installation. - On 2011-06-24 by Davian Construction Winnipeg Can

Reply by (mod) -

Testing a septic tank for leaks out of the tank:

Since a septic tank is not easily hermetically sealed, pressure testing is not feasible. You'd need to inspect the wastewater level inside the tank, then require that the tank not be used for 24 hours or longer, and measure again to see if the wastewater level has dropped.

Testing a septic tank for leaks INTO the tank:

But from your description it sounds to me as if water is leaking into the septic tank when it rains. The fact that the tank was checked after installation by no means precludes this condition. Inspect the tank before and during heavy rain; you will probably see that it is being flooded - a condition that risks flooding the drainfields too.

The "fix" depends on the nature of the outside water source. I've fixed a single leak into a septic tank at the inlet pipe by sealing there. But if the ground is flooding all around the tank during rain it may be necessary to divert that ground and surface water runoff by an intercept drain.

You will need to decide if sealing the tank cover and entry and exit piping is sufficient or if more costly site drainage improvements are needed. At least make sure the obvious sources of external water are corrected, such as a roof drainage downspout that empties close to the tank.

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