Weight on Septic Leach Lines

[bearmtnmartin]

shallow rooting gardens are fine on leachfields that are in good working condition. If you are having high water events you are probably going to ingest a few pathogens along with your juicy strawberries.

 

[rutwad]

I would say alot depends on your soil. For the 3 septic systems on my property, we have never taken extra precaution for driving over the lines. Backhoe, truck, tractor, and else have all been across them and we have never had any trouble.

 

[IslandTractor]

shallow rooting gardens are fine on leachfields that are in good working condition. If you are having high water events you are probably going to ingest a few pathogens along with your juicy strawberries.

It would be more of a concern to ingest your neighbor's leach field strawberries than those grown over your own leach field. Everyone in a household shares essentially the same colonic flora anyway so there is really no harm biologically to reingesting what you and your family flushed anyway. It may be a little gross sounding but it is very unlikely to cause harm even if you forget to rinse the fruit/produce. I suppose one should be more cautious during cholera or salmonella epidemics but I wouldn't worry about it otherwise.

 

[polo1665]

It would be more of a concern to ingest your neighbor's leach field strawberries than those grown over your own leach field. Everyone in a household shares essentially the same colonic flora anyway so there is really no harm biologically to reingesting what you and your family flushed anyway. It may be a little gross sounding but it is very unlikely to cause harm even if you forget to rinse the fruit/produce. I suppose one should be more cautious during cholera or salmonella epidemics but I wouldn't worry about it otherwise.

Probably safe to pick your nose and eat it too, but I ain't doin' it.
So remember, if your garden is over your drainfield, no house guests may use the "facilities".

Mark

 

[IslandTractor]

Probably safe to pick your nose and eat it too, but I ain't doin' it.
So remember, if your garden is over your drainfield, no house guests may use the "facilities".

Mark

Do you mean to say that you allow house guests to use your indoor flushing facilities? We send ours out to the three holer attached to the barn.

 

[polo1665]

Do you mean to say that you allow house guests to use your indoor flushing facilities? We send ours out to the three holer attached to the barn.

I had the feelin' you was one of them there high falutin' city slicker types.

Mark

 

[spruce Deere]

yep, I guess fresh manure is out of the question for some people to apply to the garden spot threw the season!!!

 

[ampsucker]

best advice? if its working, dont mess with it.

raised garden beds could add significant weight. weight is compacting to the drain field. once the water finds an easy path to the surface, you could be fighting a near endless battle.

i won't even let my wife put the baby's swingset over the laterals even though it is the best place to see it from the house.

plant grass, mow it with a light weight mower. other than that:

if its working, leave it alone....

amp

 

[pat32rf]

I know exactly where my tile beds are, just look for the green stripes in the lawn in August. Our soil is basically pit run gravel with maybe an inch of organics (if that) on top. As such, the gravel ain't gonna compact any with tractors running over it. You can leave the lawn sprinkler running for 24hrs and there won't be any puddles 5 minutes after you shut down the hose.
During the course of the summer our bed gets driven over with both our 4000lb tractor and the 1/2ton pickup. I drive neither over the tank however....

 

[Hardscrabbble]

The leach lines were backfilled by the trackhoe as he went but the area was finish graded with a grading dozer that had very wide tracks. The dozer operator claimed that he could run over an egg buried flush with the surface and not break it!! Maybe he meant hard boiled!!

Many tractor companies (Cat for example) make what they call LGP (low ground pressure) tractors. It is suprising just how little pounds per square inch they put on the ground surface. Not sure about the egg statement though.