? about a burn pile near the leach field.

[slapshot]

My neighbor was going to put a burn pile (for brush, sticks and such) on top of his leach field. I wasnt so sure that was a great idea.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

-dave

 

[Highbeam]

Not a good idea. Inside the leechfield aerobic decomposition is taking place. There are bugs there that need to be alive to keep the effluent going away. High heat and heavy weight are not advisable there.

 

[slapshot]

That was my thinking, in addition was concerns about methane.

-dave

 

[Highbeam]

Hadn't thought to worry about the sewer gas. Seems very unlikely that you'll get much in the leechfield and even more unlikely for the right mix of oxygen and methane to be a fire or explosion risk.

 

[stevenf]

Sounds like something we'd do as kids and run but honestly what a bad idea, best case the leach field is clay pipe and it gets hot enough to fracture it worst case its newer pvc and it gets hot enough!! well you get the picture I'd have him move his burn pile if he's got any sense.
Steve

 

[Birdhunter1]

I've had big fires on top of the leach field several times. It I guess depends on how deep your field is but for the most part the groudn won't heat up that much to do damage that deep.

 

[PineRidge]

This is kind of a crappy topic and I wasn't going to touch it at first. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

In my application anyway the PVC in and around the leach field is pretty shallow. And although I have never worried about putting the full weight of the 40D on it I still wouldn't consider building a fire over it.

 

[8NTX]

One of my burn piles is about 5-6 feet away from the outside edge of the leach field. No problems that I know of.

Steve

 

[turnkey4099]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I've had big fires on top of the leach field several times. It I guess depends on how deep your field is but for the most part the groudn won't heat up that much to do damage that deep. )</font>

Right. If the field is installed at the required depth, the pipe will experience no heat at all.

Harry K

 

[BB_TX]

I regularly burn brush, downed trees, etc. I build a burn pile near where I am cutting/cleaning at the time. Some of the piles I have let sit until they were very very dry. These piles burn very hot and complete, down to almost bare ground leaving almost no ashes. When that happens, it sterilizes the ground so that nothing grows for months afterward. Probably the heat doesn't go down far enough to damage pipes. But the bare earth will get very muddy each time it rains until something finally starts to grow on it.