Bought a new home; not sure the septic tank has ever been pumped

[Gale Hawkins]

It is important that it is "Your Woods" and has no chance to reach a neighbors.

For sure. When we first moved to our current home in 1986 people were still straight piping sewerage from mobile homes to the woods, open field, creeks but now there is code that the movers have to go by before setting up a mobile home thankfully.

On gray water running into an old woods with a huge leave build up it is hard to see any water except at the time the washer drains.

 

[Egon]

[video]http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/272na2.pdf[/video]

 

[vtsnowedin]

All well and good to study the problem but the question is what harm does it do? Does a segment of plastic fiber do anything different then a grain of quartz sand? If it just sits there doing nothing for a hundred years or more and doesn't interact with any living thing then where is the problem?

 

[dave1949]

All well and good to study the problem but the question is what harm does it do? Does a segment of plastic fiber do anything different then a grain of quartz sand? If it just sits there doing nothing for a hundred years or more and doesn't interact with any living thing then where is the problem?

I don't know about microplastics on beaches, ingested plastics are causing seabird mortality. If you Google "plastics in seabirds" you can read some info. I think the bigger question is, what may it cause that isn't apparent? It is a foreign substance being added to the environment without any real knowledge of the potential effects.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Re: tree roots. Boron is toxic to tree roots. Borax is a great laundry assist. If you use Borax, you will not have tree roots in your leach field.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Dave 1949 --That is why I posed it as a question not an assertion.

 

[dave1949]

Dave 1949 --That is why I posed it as a question not an assertion.

Got it.

Clams, mussels, oysters, filter feeders in general would be good specimens to examine I suppose.

There is this to consider: THE INTERSTITIAL FAUNA OF MARINE SAND. THE INTERSTITIAL FAUNA OF MARINE SAND - SWEDMARK - 2008 - Biological Reviews - Wiley Online Library

There is a whole world of little beasties living in the space between grains of sand.

 

[whistlepig]

We just had our septic tank pumped seven years after we bought this place. Washing machine discharges into the septic system and the water softener back flush goes into the system also. Septic service that pumped it said our system looked healthy and we could go another seven years easily. Just two of us living here. Our system has a valve on the leach lines to rotate the leach lines. I switch the leach lines every fall.

 

[300UGUY]

I pump ours out every 5 years. Probably not needed, but better than getting the field plugged up. I had to replace the field already, so I know how it works. The guy who pumps mine out, stirs it up with a big paddle thingy, pumps it out, uses my hose to wash down the inside, then pumps again. He really cleans it, not just pumping and running. When I redid my field, you could see the lint, it coats the lines, eventually sealing them up. Around here, if you don't know where the tank is, the septic guy will dig it up for $25. Cleaning cost me $225 last time. The septic guys are required to take it to a sewage treatment plant, mostly because too many got caught dumping it in ditches. I put a galvinized fire ring I bought from TSC around the tank cover, it was just the right depth to be slightly above ground level. I made a cover from treated plywood, double thickness, and painted. I mounted a decrative windmill on that, so it isn't too obvious what is there. The windmill, 8 ft tall, makes a nice lever to handle the cover. I used to lift off the cement cover by hand, but now I use a chain and the bota to handle that chore!

 

[whistlepig]

We recently heard from some friends that lived at a place for 25 years and never had their septic tank cleaned out. When raw sewage started filling up in their kitchen sink they called to have it pumped out. Too late. Leach lines were toast. They paid $10,000 to have their leach lines dug up and replaced. $225.00 for a clean out is cheap insurance.