Weight on Septic Leach Lines

[bearmtnmartin]

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.

I'm assuming that is a joke. There's not much safe about pooling effluent, yours or someone else. That's why we wash our hands after using the facilities...And the longer it sits the more tbe bacteria multiplies

 

[IslandTractor]

I'm assuming that is a joke. There's not much safe about pooling effluent, yours or someone else. That's why we wash our hands after using the facilities...And the longer it sits the more tbe bacteria multiplies

Kinda of a joke but biologically the main point is correct. If you lived alone, your own leach fields are contaminated only with your own colonic flora therefore there is virtually no danger. There is zero danger to reconsuming your own bacterial strains. Bacterial grow much better in your body than in the ground so they are in fact not really multiplying in a leach field (in fact the colonic bacteria are being consumed as food by soil amoeba). A family of humans shares colonic flora so being exposed to familial leach field effluent is no biggie. The story breaks down however when you consider what happens when "ill" visitors use the facilities and contribute their flora. That would be the weak point in my argument that it doesn't pose any risk.

 

[Charolais]

Been driving on the leach lines here for 27 years. The lines cross the road to my hay sheds and when feeding cattle in the winter I drive over them daily. Never had a problem. Also the beginning of those lines (about 20 ft.) are in a weaning lot where I wean about 40 head per year. Have hay rings and feed bunks in there too. Perhaps I've been lucky.

 

[kemary]

Thanks for all of the replies, even the ones about eating boogers and ingesting other unmentionables!!! My big worry about the weight is the EZ flow lines that were used. At my old house, I had perforated pipe and gravel, which I drove over without much worry but the EZ flow system uses styrofoam packing peanuts and no gravel. Also it is much shallower than the old leach systems. With only 8" of cover fill over the 10" of styrofoam it is definitely spongy even when perfectly dry. I mow at a diagonal to the lines and never parallel, I hope the leach field lasts longer than I do!! Jack

 

[bearmtnmartin]

Kinda of a joke but biologically the main point is correct. If you lived alone, your own leach fields are contaminated only with your own colonic flora therefore there is virtually no danger. There is zero danger to reconsuming your own bacterial strains. Bacterial grow much better in your body than in the ground so they are in fact not really multiplying in a leach field (in fact the colonic bacteria are being consumed as food by soil amoeba). A family of humans shares colonic flora so being exposed to familial leach field effluent is no biggie. The story breaks down however when you consider what happens when "ill" visitors use the facilities and contribute their flora. That would be the weak point in my argument that it doesn't pose any risk.

I suppose if you did live alone with no contact with the outside and no visitors, you might want to risk it. (note I said you!) but human waste is full of pathogens and disease causing organisms which multiply if left untreated outside your body. And a septic system does a good job of treating the effluent if it is able to pass through several feet of good quality unsaturated soil before it hits an impervious layer or groundwater. If the soil depth is not there, the bacteria which eat waste do not have time to do their job and the contaminants remain, either on the surface to infect you or your garden, or in the groundwater to be sucked up you or your neighbors well.
At least that's the theory I am going to go with!

 

[IslandTractor]

I suppose if you did live alone with no contact with the outside and no visitors, you might want to risk it. (note I said you!) but human waste is full of pathogens and disease causing organisms which multiply if left untreated outside your body.

I think if you look into it you will find that human pathogens typically do not multiply well in soil. They become the food of amoeba and don't survive long at all (hence the effectiveness of septic systems). Human pathogens multiply best at body temperature not ground temperature and lead life cycles that involve colonization of animals or humans not growth in soil. We tend to get them from food that has been directly contaminated by feces (uncooked chicken and beef contaminated during slaughter or feces contaminated vegetables etc). If we do get infected from soil based organisms it is most often through contaminated well water (hence the rules on distance from a septic system for a well). Please be clear that I am not advocating taking this lightly I am just pointing out that in fact the risks of growing food over a septic system leach field are much lower than one might reasonably expect given how we think about septic systems.

 

[bearmtnmartin]

I think if you look into it you will find that human pathogens typically do not multiply well in soil. They become the food of amoeba and don't survive long at all (hence the effectiveness of septic systems). Human pathogens multiply best at body temperature not ground temperature and lead life cycles that involve colonization of animals or humans not growth in soil. We tend to get them from food that has been directly contaminated by feces (uncooked chicken and beef contaminated during slaughter or feces contaminated vegetables etc). If we do get infected from soil based organisms it is most often through contaminated well water (hence the rules on distance from a septic system for a well). Please be clear that I am not advocating taking this lightly I am just pointing out that in fact the risks of growing food over a septic system leach field are much lower than one might reasonably expect given how we think about septic systems.

we may be talking around the same thing, but from my first post, I was referring to pooling effluent as being a source of contamination. The amoeba to which you refer are not able to do their job if the effluent has surfaced. So they do not grow and multiply in soil, they grow and multiply either in ground water, or in the puddle above your drainfield or septic tank if your field has failed. This is a very important point, because I would not like to think that someone might read your posts and come to the conclusion that a failing septic field is OK, and does not need to be dealt with.

 

[IslandTractor]

we may be talking around the same thing, but from my first post, I was referring to pooling effluent as being a source of contamination. The amoeba to which you refer are not able to do their job if the effluent has surfaced. So they do not grow and multiply in soil, they grow and multiply either in ground water, or in the puddle above your drainfield or septic tank if your field has failed. This is a very important point, because I would not like to think that someone might read your posts and come to the conclusion that a failing septic field is OK, and does not need to be dealt with.

I was just talking about growing food on top of the leach field, not about a failed septic system. Still, human pathogens don't grow well if at all in effluent. They may survive but they don't multiply very fast if at all. Viruses don't multiply at all and almost all enteric bacteria (salmonella, shigella, toxigenic E coli) require body temperature to grow properly.

 

[bearmtnmartin]

I was just talking about growing food on top of the leach field, not about a failed septic system. Still, human pathogens don't grow well if at all in effluent. They may survive but they don't multiply very fast if at all. Viruses don't multiply at all and almost all enteric bacteria (salmonella, shigella, toxigenic E coli) require body temperature to grow properly.

I was certainly under the impression that bacteria multiplied quite well at any temperature above freezing. This is the same process that makes your milk go bad in the fridge. The process doesn't stop just because it's no longer in the cow, in fact they multiply much faster. I am however willing to be convinced. Why then is contact with sewage and other forms of human waste considered a reliable means of contracting disease?

 

[bearmtnmartin]

If you are having high water events you are probably going to ingest a few pathogens along with your juicy strawberries.
this was my original comment, which related to a failed field. And I apologise to the OP for hijacking his thread big time. I'll shut up now.