Septic question - pumping to drain field
- Thread starter RobA
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Thank you Dave, for saying what I was thinking.
Just a few years ago in my area, if you owned 10 or more acres, you were considered a "farm" for septic purposes. You didn't have to have a system installed, much less inspected. In recent times, that rule was amended and now if you want to hook up to a municipal water supply and have electricity turned on at a dwelling, you have to submit a signed permit from the county inspector to the water dept. and electric company.
Now I'm not oppposed to some environmental controls, but I have a family of four living on about 140 acres. We also have many head of cattle, some horses, goats, pigs, cats, dogs, and who knows how many squirrel, deer, bobcat, coyotes, etc. I can't control where the cows choose to "do their business", and (contrary to popular belief), one cow puts out more crap in a day than I do all week!
It cracked me up that we couldn't have our septic field within 100 ft of a pond; the same pond that the cows go in and out of to cool down in the summer (and I'm pretty sure they pee in the pool, just like people do!).
We are planning on putting up another barn/shop that will have a bathroom and shower in it. Even though it will not require an additional electric or water supply, I'm certainly going to tie it in to the existing septic system rather than just run a pipe out into the woods.
It's just good to see an attack of good sense every now and then (I'm pretty unfamiliar with that occurance.)
Take care.
Just a few years ago in my area, if you owned 10 or more acres, you were considered a "farm" for septic purposes. You didn't have to have a system installed, much less inspected. In recent times, that rule was amended and now if you want to hook up to a municipal water supply and have electricity turned on at a dwelling, you have to submit a signed permit from the county inspector to the water dept. and electric company.
Now I'm not oppposed to some environmental controls, but I have a family of four living on about 140 acres. We also have many head of cattle, some horses, goats, pigs, cats, dogs, and who knows how many squirrel, deer, bobcat, coyotes, etc. I can't control where the cows choose to "do their business", and (contrary to popular belief), one cow puts out more crap in a day than I do all week!
It cracked me up that we couldn't have our septic field within 100 ft of a pond; the same pond that the cows go in and out of to cool down in the summer (and I'm pretty sure they pee in the pool, just like people do!).
We are planning on putting up another barn/shop that will have a bathroom and shower in it. Even though it will not require an additional electric or water supply, I'm certainly going to tie it in to the existing septic system rather than just run a pipe out into the woods.
It's just good to see an attack of good sense every now and then (I'm pretty unfamiliar with that occurance.)
Take care.
I really hope someone can help me. I have no money, well very little. I am a disabled vet and have very little income and I have a drain field backing up. Is there anything I can do that is not 8 to 10 grand. The drain field is around 30 years old, I was told by the local "pros" in north Carolina that I had to replace tank and field. The estimates are from 6 to 10 thousand depending. The water is seeping up just in front of the septic tank itself. Please tell me there is some miracle chemical I can use.
Thanks
Thanks
955er
Gold Member
It's backing up because liquid is not draining into the field. That doesn't mean the field is shot, regardless of age.
Get a contractor out who will start digging at the tank and work his way out. If you have a bad baffle in the tank, septage can back into and clog your head end pipe. You need to dig a pilot hole out in the field and see if the gravel is dry and clean. If it is, you don't need to replace it, the water is not getting to it.
The issue is most contractors who do drain fields don't want to diagnose. Yeah, you may need a new drain field, but unless they dig and look, who knows. You may just need a baffle and 20ft of pipe cleaned out.
Let us know how this turns out.
Mousefield
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Have you ever had the tank pumped out? As suggested by 995er it could be a plugged pipe or at your distribution box. Good luck with it and keep us posted.
shaley
Platinum Member
Is it just you in the house? I take it you are in NC. Parts of NC/VA had a all time record wet winter. We had 39" of rain from Nov 09 to Apr 15. That much will kill any dainfield. As the other poster suggested you need to get a contractor to dig up the D-box and check the hydraulic soundness of the system. i.e. broken, cloged pipes, roots, broken tanks or D-box. etc. How old is the system?
schmism
Super Member
perhaps technically true, the reality is 99% of the time it is not true.
especially with a system as old as yours with little to no care taken to pump the tank on regular 3-5 year intervals.
if the tank is plugged, or the distribution box is plugged, the odds are that many if not all the lines are also plugged.
shaley
Platinum Member
While we're on the subject of septic systems.
This is what can happen when septic systems go wrong. This is the water sample from our creek. Each purple colony is a Fecal Coliform colony (E. Coli in this case). It's a gauge for determining how much mamal sewage is in a body of water. I count about 90 colonies for this 1ml sample. All the coliform standards are based on 100ml sample so mutiply this by 100. 9000CFU/100ml right? Virginia standards for smimming and contact such as canoeing/kayaking, water sking are 200CFU/100ml. I'd say we are way over the limit. The Health dept says is the Dept of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and DEQ says it's the Health dept responsibility. They blame it on the Raccons and Deer and nothing gets cleaned up. I'm about ready to go to the local paper.
This is what can happen when septic systems go wrong. This is the water sample from our creek. Each purple colony is a Fecal Coliform colony (E. Coli in this case). It's a gauge for determining how much mamal sewage is in a body of water. I count about 90 colonies for this 1ml sample. All the coliform standards are based on 100ml sample so mutiply this by 100. 9000CFU/100ml right? Virginia standards for smimming and contact such as canoeing/kayaking, water sking are 200CFU/100ml. I'd say we are way over the limit. The Health dept says is the Dept of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and DEQ says it's the Health dept responsibility. They blame it on the Raccons and Deer and nothing gets cleaned up. I'm about ready to go to the local paper.
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IslandTractor
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Shaley, that is concerning but I'd think the first thing to do is to get the water professionally cultured using standard sampling and culture methodology as that is what the EPA cut off limits are based on. You don't specify but usually these tests are done with a filter paper or with multiple tube dilution methods. Just adding water to a petri dish and incubating it gives a semi quantitative result but may not be easily interpreted with reference to the EPA standards. Still, it looks like you have a problem at least if you want to swim in the creek.
seymojo536
Silver Member
Shaley,
I use to perform potable water testing in the state of Ohio and carried certifications for these types of tests. That is my basis for the following comments.
It has been awhile but I do not see a 90 count in your sample. I would call them background colonies not a positive E. Coli. (maybe a count of 2 on the plate). The positives look atypical to me.
The type of agar used to culture is very specific to the bacteria you are trying to grow. Also it appears from the size of the colonies that this plate was incubated for much longer than the 24 hours the test calls for. Media, time and temp are spelled out exactly in the book.
We tested almost every drinkable public water supply in the state and just about every state beach sample came across my bench. This time of the year it was not uncommon to see a spike in the counts of the beach samples due to increased temperature and people in the water stirring up the bottom.
Almost every sample would be reported as HBC or high background count, meaniong there were more than 200 "other" colonies growing on the plate making it impossible to see any positives.
Bottom line is: you really don't want to know what's growing in your water.
I use to perform potable water testing in the state of Ohio and carried certifications for these types of tests. That is my basis for the following comments.
It has been awhile but I do not see a 90 count in your sample. I would call them background colonies not a positive E. Coli. (maybe a count of 2 on the plate). The positives look atypical to me.
The type of agar used to culture is very specific to the bacteria you are trying to grow. Also it appears from the size of the colonies that this plate was incubated for much longer than the 24 hours the test calls for. Media, time and temp are spelled out exactly in the book.
We tested almost every drinkable public water supply in the state and just about every state beach sample came across my bench. This time of the year it was not uncommon to see a spike in the counts of the beach samples due to increased temperature and people in the water stirring up the bottom.
Almost every sample would be reported as HBC or high background count, meaniong there were more than 200 "other" colonies growing on the plate making it impossible to see any positives.
Bottom line is: you really don't want to know what's growing in your water.