Code0
New Member
Well, bought a house back in August that was just outside of city limits and has a septic system. I found out at that time that the tank was a new 1000gal tank (round concrete) that has a surface access. The rest was unknown at time of sale, but I did have a pumper take a look at it and things looked fine. The plumber who replaced the tank also said things were looking OK at that time. Later I found the leach field specs from an old permit. 2 80ft laterals that are 30" wide and a 10'x10' leach pit. This is all from 40 years ago (original install date). My perc rate at that time was 10min/in. The soil is mostly clay-ish.
Anyway... Fast-forward to the last few weeks. Iowa got hit with a nasty ice storm including my county (Marshall County). Right before the storm, everything had thawed and the ground was bare. During the whole storm, there was a big gaping spot all the way to the surface that was holding water - this spot seems to be over where the leach field should be.
It seems a bit odd that the rest of the yard is dry and this area has a nice huge puddle.. Well, we sent a broken up blue toilet cleaner down the drain as a cheap dye test with a good bit of hot water to chase it down. About half an hour later, my wife went out (brave soul) and sniffed. It smelled like strong sewage and toilet bowl cleaner. She stuck a stick in the puddle and figured the smell was from the water (again - BRAVE soul).
Does this point to system failure - especially after the sudden freeze/ice storm?
P.S. - The system has worked fine since we moved in (just 2 of us). No issues at all concerning the septic (smells, standing water, etc). Also, over the winter, there were no signs of snow melt around the system.
Pictures of the problem:
http://gallery.code0.net/trouble-in-the-back-yard/
Anyway... Fast-forward to the last few weeks. Iowa got hit with a nasty ice storm including my county (Marshall County). Right before the storm, everything had thawed and the ground was bare. During the whole storm, there was a big gaping spot all the way to the surface that was holding water - this spot seems to be over where the leach field should be.
It seems a bit odd that the rest of the yard is dry and this area has a nice huge puddle.. Well, we sent a broken up blue toilet cleaner down the drain as a cheap dye test with a good bit of hot water to chase it down. About half an hour later, my wife went out (brave soul) and sniffed. It smelled like strong sewage and toilet bowl cleaner. She stuck a stick in the puddle and figured the smell was from the water (again - BRAVE soul).
Does this point to system failure - especially after the sudden freeze/ice storm?
P.S. - The system has worked fine since we moved in (just 2 of us). No issues at all concerning the septic (smells, standing water, etc). Also, over the winter, there were no signs of snow melt around the system.
Pictures of the problem:
http://gallery.code0.net/trouble-in-the-back-yard/