Anybody know about septic systems?

[generalmeow]

I've been having some septic problems, and I did get a recommendation for a septic contractor and he came out to take a look at it, but I could tell that diagnosing problems wasn't really his cup of tea. He can put in a new system, and obviously knows how they work, but I don't know who to turn to to help exhaust all of the options before replacing the system. I don't think he's really set up to help investigate all the potential problems (scoping, possibly?).

About a month ago I saw some effluent squirting out of the high point, and a couple of days later from one of the stand pipes in the drainage field. The septic tank is not full. I started reading up on it, and it sounds like my drain field is failing. The septic contractor came out, pulled off the covers for the manifolds, and we saw that there are (8) zones, and (2) of them were turned off. He turned off the (2) wettest looking zones, and turned on the (2) that were closed, and basically said "well hopefully that buys you some good time, but if it keeps happening you can play musical chairs with the valves, but if it doesn't work any more call me and we'll start talking about drain field replacement."

That did seem to work for a month, but yesterday my wife did a bunch of laundry and told me that she saw it squirting out of the pipe at the high point again. Crap.

So my entire property slopes down from west to east. The septic tank is on the lower portion of the property. I understand that when the tank becomes full to a certain point, it pumps it up to the high point on the higher end of the property, which is basically a couple of manifolds, and a pipe straight out of the ground, and then the effluent runs down from the manifolds by gravity into the 8 drain field sections.

I also understand if you see effluent coming up out of the pipes in the drainfield, it's basically not taking any more water so it has failed. But what I don't understand is how water can ever come out of the high point pipe, without first spraying out of all of the drain field pipes. The high point is highest, so as long as the high point is highest it should never spray water. Water should go everywhere but out of the high point.

If I go out into the drain field and pull off the caps, I can see a couple of them with a little bit of water at the bottom, one of them has water half way up the pipe, and at least 4 of them are bone dry. Based on my understanding of plumbing/gravity, they should all have the same amount of water in them, and they should all be filling up before anything hits the high point pipe (and theoretically, it should never come out of the high point pipe).

I'm wondering if I've got some broken pipes or something before they reach the drainfields. It's almost like some of the drainfield sections aren't even getting water, and maybe a couple of the sections are completely full, but the water has no where else to go except get forced out of the high point by the pressure of the pumping. But even then, even if the only drainfield sections that are full can't take any more water, they should be spraying water, not the high point.

It seems like if I've got a complete drainfield failure, they'd all be full of water when I look down the pipes, and they'd all be spraying water when the pump turns on and gravity kicks in.

Am I correct in assuming something else might be going on here than just a complete drain field failure? If so, got a recommendation on who to contact to try to figure it out?

[TRnCO]

I've never heard of a pump being installed after/downstream of the septic tank. Most are gravity from the tank to the lower end of the septic field. Once the tank is full, it lets out the same amount of water that goes in. Keep the septic tank clean/pumped regularly, and clear water should be all that makes it into the leach field.

[MarkCO]

Your leach filed may need to be cleaned, but you may also have a broken or plugged pipe or manifold. You can get someone like Gavins to come out and scope the system. If you have system drawings, that helps.

[Lurch]

If you have eight zones you need to rotate them so they have time to rest. With all this rain your leach field is saturated. I would turn off the worse two for a month and see if the two that were turned on take care of the problem. I just replaced my pump and that was a crappy job.

[Colorado_Outback]

I just replaced my pump and that was a crappy job.

[SideShow Bob]

Sounds like you're up sh*t creek without a paddle...........

Sorry, I couldn't resist. And I am no help, I only have bad experiences with Flatlander gravity septic systems.

[rockhound]

Your tank is not full? The tank should fill before anything goes out to the field. There should be two sides to your tank a sludge side and a liquid side. The sludge side should fill and transfer liquid over the baffle to the liquid side and then out to the field.

Is the high point that is spewing before or after the tank? Field that fail usually show water flowing out of the ground. If you are pumping it out of the ground your zone valves may be closed or inoperable

[Bailey Guns]

rockhound raises some valid points. One other thing to consider is the amount of rain we've had lately. Is it possible the ground is temporarily saturated and just can't handle any more water just yet?

[meatman]

We had these guys come out to diagnose our system a couple of weeks ago: http://toddcompanies.com/ They seem to be a stand-up company.

We had been using Columbia Sanitary to pump our tanks, but I brought the Todd Co. in because Columbia could never give us answers on why our tank had to be pumped every 3 months recently. The Todd Co. pumped our tank, then they were going to send someone out to diagnose the issue. There was some confusion because one of the office people at the Todd Co. told me I had to call someone in to video the outlet of the tank into the septic field. The video people came out and said they couldn't do it because they couldn't get good access to the outlet. Then someone else from the Todd Co. followed up, apologized for the confusion and one of the owners came out immediately and gave us a plethora of information that we couldn't get from anyone else. They definitely know what they're talking about and should be able to help you diagnose your issues.

There could definitely be an issue with the water table being high at the moment and is most likely the problem. The reason the tank isn't full is because if the pump kicks on by a float, it will pump it out in the field and it's spraying it out the end and not fill up the tank.

If they diagnose the problem as a failed leach field, I know that Columbia Sanitary is one of the only companies in the area that does an air injection (TerraLift) into the leach field to fracture the dirt to allow more surface area for the effluent to go. I'm not sure how much it costs, but I'm positive it's cheaper than digging a new leach field.

[MarkCO]

Todd is who we had do out septic work when we had one.

We had a drought for 12 years, and the last year plus, especially this spring, we are well over normal precipitation. I have been looking at houses, thermal loops and sewer lines the past few months that had been fine for years, but have now moved and or failed. Expansive, collapse, soils as well as increased hydraulic pressure from ground water is causing some serious problems in some areas.