Roots in the septic tank

[handirifle]

Well I care, for one, it allows waste sewage to leak into my yard, near the house. No doubt it will eventually surface and I don't want or need the smell. In addition, it will only invite the roots to come back. The root ball in the primary tank is already taking up an estimated 200 gallons worth of space, so it needs to go. Leaving it as is, is not an option. Gutter run off is not comparison to raw sewage.

The tank was sealed between the lid and side, to try and prevent just this sort of issue. Sealing it from the outside will only allow it to be pushed off when the tank fills, then it's wide open. I will remove the lid, clean the roots away and put a new seal down, and then seal it from the outside. I have no desire to replace a tank because roots crack it open

As for leeching, the leach field is about 150ft from my house and 4ft deep. I want to keep it there.

Not sure what you mean by tank "halves". This is the lid that covers the entire tank.

Darrel Simpson
I will add perforated drain line all around the tank, with a debris sock over it. I will connect this to 3" drain line all the way to my creek to keep water build up from the sides, in the future.

It just hit me, did you mean to get rid of the existing water? I will have to lower the water level somehow, to repair the inlet-outlet seals.

 

[handirifle]

The roots seem like a minor issue compared to the water. A back flow valve won't make any difference.

Yes and no. The back water valve it to prevent hydraulic pressure from the leech system from pushing water into the tank. If the leech is flooded, and least I will have the tank to fill, without it filling up over nite, like it has been. I had a trench around it last nite, and this morning it was full, again, this after pumping the secondary tank a second time.

Finally, this afternoon, the leech stopped leaking back into the tank, so the leech field is finally draining a bit. Not sure how much it will take before it backs up though. The water was only a problem BECAUSE OF THE ROOTS. At least as far as filling the tank faster.

Keep in mind, when we first built, we had 2 years back to back with 33" and 40" of rain, without a single issue with the tank. It has been 5yrs of drought since then, when the roots migrated to the tank, that has caused the issue. That plus we have had a LOT of rain in one month. We do not get storms here except from Sept to March. The rest of the year is dry, so 33040" of rain is a LOT, for this area, in a few months. Our Annual average here is 17".

 

[handirifle]

edit, double post.

 

[4570Man]

The tank is full anyway. Water doesn't exist the tank until it reaches the pipe draining to the leech field which is only a few inches from the top.

 

[handirifle]

Well I got all my supplies today, perforated drain, sleeve for perf drain, solid drain, foam, new mastic gasket for the lid, and all my fittings. Now to wait out this next series of storms and then it will get done. All I need is some gravel for the french drain, just around the tank, and I will be all set to actually FIX it.

 

[DarrellSimpson]

Yes , I was thinking of trying to lower the water table around your septic tank , It would of course depend on how friendly your soil would be to letting the water leach into the well . You could have the well connected to the perforated pipe to help with ground water collection

 

[D2Cat]

Looks to me like you're creating a bigger problem by removing the lid to put a seal on the top of the tank.

Why not get some hydraulic cement and mix it to the consistency of cooked oatmeal and pack it where ever you have a gap or hole that concerns you. It's a product that expands when it dries and you only want to mix what you can get in place in about 5 minutes. It will set up that fast. You can apply hydraulic cement to a leak that has water leaking out of it and it still seals it, just mix it to more of a paste

Dumping copper sulfate in the tank will not impede the function of your tank.

Many tank pumpers will tell you you need to pump you tank every year. That's BS to keep them in work. If your tank is working properly you may need to get it pumped every 20 years or so! The longer the better.

Now days you can have a good drain cleaning specialist put a camera in your clean out (usually in your basement) and get a visual of the condition of your tank solids elevation.

 

[handirifle]

OK time for an update. First, I did NOT put in backwater valve. I hope it isn't a mistake, but I will know soon enough because we have another storm coming in tonight that will drop another 2-3 inches. To put in to perspective how much rain we have had in a short time, 3 1/2 weeks ago, out local lake (Santa Margarita Lake) was at 12%. Full, the lake holds almost 24,000 acre ft of water. That means it was holding 2880 acre ft, before the rains came. It was literally a creek going through the bottom.

The lake is now over 25,000 acre ft. It is spilling 2ft over the spillway currently. HUGE amount of water for a short time.

Darrel
The water leaching into and around the tank, we would not want in our well. It's considered surface water and usually has way too many contaminants in it. That goes for the first 10-30ft here. I do have it draining through the drain line and into my creek.

So I have 3" perforated pipe surrounding the tank, sitting on a 1" layer of gravel, covered by the cloth sleeve. That is covered but approx 12" of 3/4" gravel, up to the bottom of the lid. We DID lift the lid, and cleaned out about 60 gallons of roots. It was about a 6-8" blanket covering the entire surface of the tank. There was ZERO chance of sealing that tank without removing the lid. The roots had invaded nearly every inch of the seam between tank and lid.

I got new tank seal mastic strips and installed completely around the tank. Once the lid was reset, I used spray expanding foam, to not just seal around the sewer pipes, but in the space under the lid, where the mastic did not spread to.

On top of the 3/4 gravel, I put 18, 40lb bags of rock salt, to approx 4" depth.

I tried to backfill today, but only got it about half way done. My little MF1010 was sinking in the mud so deep it was almost unsafe. This is NOT the dirt that was removed, but the undisturbed soil around it. My front tires were sinking 10" inches and it at times was causing the tractor to tip sideways until I put the bucket down and pushed it back level. After that, I just dropped the bucket, smoothed the hills and valleys a bit and parked the tractor. Backfilling will have to wait at least a week after the rains are done, before I can continue, with the tractor any way.

I also still need to at least LOCATE the Dbox, before completely backfilling the trench.

 

[RNeumann]

Sounds like some good progress. I didn't realize you exposed the D Box. Everything good there? Flowing to both fields equally?

 

[handirifle]

No I didn't expose it. I mentioned at the last I NEED to locate it, just so I know WHERE it is.