Cubey
New Member
I was out mowing my back yard for the first time this year and found a few very saturated places that are like small holes filled with water that I think are at the end of my drain field. The diagram I got from the health dept isn't even drawn properly in relation to a shed slab that has been here since 1972 even though the diagram should have been drawn around 1997. It shows the drain field in the exact place the stab is located and shows the slab where it isn't. So I'm not sure how much I can even trust the diagram. I bought the house exactly a year ago and was seeing some water saturation at that time. All during summer last year I kept my eye on the area when I did my mowing and I didn't see it at all which leads me to believe merely s a seasonal issue.
I have no slow drains or backup issues in the house but... by design it can't unless the pump after the septpic tank quits working. The plot of land is under 1 acre and is a triangle shape so they had to design the system to fit in an oddly shaped, small amount of space. Plus I think the soil isn't too good (a lot of clay). The sewage exits the house, goes into the septic tank, the untreated water exits the septic tank and goes into a sump pit and is pumped uphill a good 100ft or so to a "rock filter bed" as the seller called it, then it gravity drains 100ft or more back down to the drain field. At the very corner of my back yard where the drain field REALLY is (which is just labeled "low area" on the health dept diagram, about 50+ ft from where the diagram shows the drain field) is where I found the small saturated areas.
But there is no sewage smell to the water or sewage smells what so ever anywhere in the yard. Seems to me I may just need to bring in some dirt and build up the low areas around the drain field where it seems to be saturated. I will have to carry it in a 5 gallon bucket a time (or with a wheel barrow) so I don't drive over the drain field.
However, it could be the guy the last owner rented the house to drove over it. he was a complete idiot who did major damage in the house, tore down the shed, left a half burned huge trash pile that I am still picking glass out of occasionally. He also did digging and burying of chunks of cement out in/around the drain field (i found this out after I got the house by talking to the neighbor). It's a wonder the septic system is working at all.
A year ago I had the septic tank pumped so I know that's good and clean. It is about a 1000-1250 gallon septic tank and I live alone (except for about 4mos last year when a friend lived here too) so I know the tank is in good condition. I was concerned about this about this time last year as well. The saturated areas are very squishy, and squish up tan mud. But again, it's not the odor of sewage. it does have a slight smell to it... but there is a large cow pasture behind my house with a relatively small number of cows and a few donkeys. It could be that some of it is just runoff from that since it's within 20ft of the barbed wire fence where the cows walk up to.
There was a fairly deep hole out in that corner which I have slowly filled in with dirt after removing the busted up pieces of cement the guy tried to bury. This is about 10ft from the current water saturated areas, however. When I had a plumber here to install a new washing drain (that's a whole other story about why I needed one) I showed him the hole that was still there at that time that looked to me like it had water/sewage in it and smelled of manure. He said it was not sewage from my septic system because it wouldn't smell like manure and he suspected it was just a water puddle from the recent rain and runoff from the cow pasture right near by.
So I am hoping that maybe it's just a seasonal problem with purified water since it seems to have no sewer odor of any kind and is only a few very small areas where the ground is low.
So does anyone think some top soil brought in by hand to build it up to help with the drainage a good idea or no?
I may have to dig up the yard drainage I put in around my garage and south end of the house to send the water out to the back yard (to stop flooding of the house and garage in very sudden heavy rain/flash floods) and redo it out to ditch by the highway (if they'll grant permission) because now I am sending probably hundreds of gallons of rain water out to the back yard during heavy rains and yes, it floods the back yard. Although the suspected drain field area is built up higher so the water puddling MOSTLY isn't directly over the drain field. But it still absorbs into the ground very close to the drain field. That may be part of the problem too.
Check out the diagram from the health dept with my notes (in red) pointing out how things really are:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/illiop/septic.jpg
There's actually a lot more to it that isn't accurate about the diagram but it's not related to the septic system so I didn't bother fixing everything.
If the drain field is where the diagram show it roughly (it cant be EXACTLY there, a thick 16x16 ft slab is there and has been since the early to mid 70s) then the new well is about 25-75ft from the field line. I was told there is an old septic tank within 25 ft of the new well which I suspect is true since the sewer hookup at the RV carport (which I don't use of course!) is heading straight in that direction. The rough area of where they show the drain field in the diagram could be the OLD drain field for the OLD septic tank which would be about in the right place and distance for use with the the old septic tank, fed by gravity only. I suspect they drew the old drain field in the diagram and then put it somewhere else and the health dept just didn't dig deep enough to find the right document showing the change in plans. Or maybe another drain field was added after they used the old one for a while and it didn't work well with the new system.
There's so many unknowns about this house.
I have no slow drains or backup issues in the house but... by design it can't unless the pump after the septpic tank quits working. The plot of land is under 1 acre and is a triangle shape so they had to design the system to fit in an oddly shaped, small amount of space. Plus I think the soil isn't too good (a lot of clay). The sewage exits the house, goes into the septic tank, the untreated water exits the septic tank and goes into a sump pit and is pumped uphill a good 100ft or so to a "rock filter bed" as the seller called it, then it gravity drains 100ft or more back down to the drain field. At the very corner of my back yard where the drain field REALLY is (which is just labeled "low area" on the health dept diagram, about 50+ ft from where the diagram shows the drain field) is where I found the small saturated areas.
But there is no sewage smell to the water or sewage smells what so ever anywhere in the yard. Seems to me I may just need to bring in some dirt and build up the low areas around the drain field where it seems to be saturated. I will have to carry it in a 5 gallon bucket a time (or with a wheel barrow) so I don't drive over the drain field.
However, it could be the guy the last owner rented the house to drove over it. he was a complete idiot who did major damage in the house, tore down the shed, left a half burned huge trash pile that I am still picking glass out of occasionally. He also did digging and burying of chunks of cement out in/around the drain field (i found this out after I got the house by talking to the neighbor). It's a wonder the septic system is working at all.
A year ago I had the septic tank pumped so I know that's good and clean. It is about a 1000-1250 gallon septic tank and I live alone (except for about 4mos last year when a friend lived here too) so I know the tank is in good condition. I was concerned about this about this time last year as well. The saturated areas are very squishy, and squish up tan mud. But again, it's not the odor of sewage. it does have a slight smell to it... but there is a large cow pasture behind my house with a relatively small number of cows and a few donkeys. It could be that some of it is just runoff from that since it's within 20ft of the barbed wire fence where the cows walk up to.
There was a fairly deep hole out in that corner which I have slowly filled in with dirt after removing the busted up pieces of cement the guy tried to bury. This is about 10ft from the current water saturated areas, however. When I had a plumber here to install a new washing drain (that's a whole other story about why I needed one) I showed him the hole that was still there at that time that looked to me like it had water/sewage in it and smelled of manure. He said it was not sewage from my septic system because it wouldn't smell like manure and he suspected it was just a water puddle from the recent rain and runoff from the cow pasture right near by.
So I am hoping that maybe it's just a seasonal problem with purified water since it seems to have no sewer odor of any kind and is only a few very small areas where the ground is low.
So does anyone think some top soil brought in by hand to build it up to help with the drainage a good idea or no?
I may have to dig up the yard drainage I put in around my garage and south end of the house to send the water out to the back yard (to stop flooding of the house and garage in very sudden heavy rain/flash floods) and redo it out to ditch by the highway (if they'll grant permission) because now I am sending probably hundreds of gallons of rain water out to the back yard during heavy rains and yes, it floods the back yard. Although the suspected drain field area is built up higher so the water puddling MOSTLY isn't directly over the drain field. But it still absorbs into the ground very close to the drain field. That may be part of the problem too.
Check out the diagram from the health dept with my notes (in red) pointing out how things really are:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/illiop/septic.jpg
There's actually a lot more to it that isn't accurate about the diagram but it's not related to the septic system so I didn't bother fixing everything.
If the drain field is where the diagram show it roughly (it cant be EXACTLY there, a thick 16x16 ft slab is there and has been since the early to mid 70s) then the new well is about 25-75ft from the field line. I was told there is an old septic tank within 25 ft of the new well which I suspect is true since the sewer hookup at the RV carport (which I don't use of course!) is heading straight in that direction. The rough area of where they show the drain field in the diagram could be the OLD drain field for the OLD septic tank which would be about in the right place and distance for use with the the old septic tank, fed by gravity only. I suspect they drew the old drain field in the diagram and then put it somewhere else and the health dept just didn't dig deep enough to find the right document showing the change in plans. Or maybe another drain field was added after they used the old one for a while and it didn't work well with the new system.
There's so many unknowns about this house.