resurrect septic system laterals

tub has been draining slow, attributed normally to my wife's long hair. so i cleaned the drain and it didnt help. son took out compost and said "there's a smelly river under the compost bin."

sure enough, there was some black water(eww) in a hole the raccoons dug to get under the wall of the bin. opened up cap on tank and can see the water had almost come up and out of the riser. got my shovel and went about to where i knew the leach field was and dug down and hit standing water at one foot, right at the gravel. i went beyond where i knew it was and started digging backwards until i hit the edge, at which point clear water flowed into my small ditch through the rocks. looks like the soil around my field is straight clay at this point and not allowing the water to escape the gravel quickly enough. overnight the water in the tank falls to the normal level, but it can't even keep up with one shower.

i was reading and i found something called hydro jetting where they blast water into the laterals force stuff to drain again. i don't know that's the right thing here. i also found another guy that claims this is caused by accumulation of solids in the leach field over time and the little midichlorians that eat the solids need more oxygen to create more jedi, so the answer to rejuvenating the field is to get concentrated hydrogen peroxide from the pool store and pour it into the tank so it goes out into the field and accelerates the breakdown of the solids, and then once things are flowing he says to mix a box of oxy clean with water and dump it right into the tank so it flows out into the field and oxygenates stuff.

disclaimer: my system is from the 60's. it was pumped and inspected in july and told it didn't need it, and that the inside of the tank still appears to be in good condition. it has one 6" riser and no other access, they used a camera. i'm honestly just trying to buy time until they run sanitary sewers down my street, at which point i'll tie in to that. the next street east just got them and they appear to be running them this way, but i am not sure how long it will be. my laundry and basement shower(that i use) go to the sump in the basement, which gets shot outside. i didn't set it up this way, it was like this when we moved in. so the laundry and my showers have no impact on the septic system.

naturally, since i know next to nothing about septic systems, i come to GRM for help. i'm trying to get options before calling the septic people, having them come out and tell me i need a completely new system for 20K and tell the county that my system is failing.

A 50 year old system is on borrowed time. Around here, 30 year old systems are known to fail. The problems I encounter are usually between tanks and the field.

Clay makes your life tougher. It's possible that the design is for less use. Check into extending the lines or adding laterals. You did check the lowest lateral? Is it satuated, too? Are there drop boxes? Older concrete ones crush, blocking flow.

I'll check with the engineer early next week and see if he has any suggestions.

Prior to settling on our house last August, we had a similar issue turn up in the inspection of our septic system, which I'd guestimate is probably around the same age as yours. 1 or 2 out of the 3 trenches was totaly saturated, causing the tank to drain slowly. For a couple days, we really thought the problem was gonna kill the deal for us, but it turned out the distribution box was not level and was preferentially draining into the one trench. Leveling the box in conjunction with blasting out the lines solved the problem and it's been fine ever since.

Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form claim to know what I am talking about, nor whether it is relevant to your situation. Just a data point to share

I have nothing of value to add, but I am so glad that I just pay my local sanitation district so that when I poop, it goes far, far away from me and becomes the problem of someone named not me.

Appleseed wrote: A 50 year old system is on borrowed time. Around here, 30 year old systems are known to fail. The problems I encounter are usually between tanks and the field. Clay makes your life tougher. It's possible that the design is for less use. Check into extending the lines or adding laterals. You did check the lowest lateral? Is it satuated, too? Are there drop boxes? Older concrete ones crush, blocking flow. I'll check with the engineer early next week and see if he has any suggestions.

i believe i checked the lowest lateral. we're on the edge of a valley and it is a few feet lower than the rest of the yard, and about 5 feet from where it drops off . there are many many trees in the yard even between the system and the laterals, which isn't exactly exciting to me. i am not sure if we have any drop boxes. nothing is exposed anyway. i know what they typically look like since all the newer houses have about an 18" square plastic cap in the yard covering them. we have nothing like that.

the compost bin is up on level ground about 8 feet from the tank riser and the water was at that location in the hole the raccoons dug.

i know we're on borrowed time, i just want to borrow a little more . we have municipal water, and i know we're close to the westward edge of the expanding sewer system. i'm going to to call the county monday to see if they have an idea when they plan to expand here.

Find out when the expansion is expected.

If you had to, you could survive with a port-o-john for a short time (if it's gonna save $20K)

I sounds like you have water making it to the end of the run at least on the run you dug to. Could you dig a trench and expand that run with infiltrators like they use on newer systems? This would be a stopgap of course.

The stop gap around here is to put in a gravel pit. It's a bandaids and not a cure and I'm even sure it's legal.

We had some leakage from a line years ago and had read about the hydroblasting. I never got around to investigating further. I had planted a maple tree near the line in question and cut it down. The problem seems to have gone away because it hasn't leaked for years.

Neighbors on each side of me have had gravel pits put in. Our systems are right at 30-31 years old.

Back story: I do field survey work for an engineering firm (Very small. 8 employees.) 80% of our work centers around septic systems.

Once you've found a lateral, pace up or down 3 paces, or about 9 feet. These are typical spacings for laterals. Most are about 3 feet wide, and 18 inches deep to the top of the gravel. When probing, pace a bit, then probe. You will definitely know when you hit the end, as soil feels completely different. Drop boxes, if present, will feel different as well, almost a hollow sound/feel, nothing like the gravel.

Once you know the size of your field, it will give you a better idea of how to proceed.

There is a product called AidOx. It is a white powder and comes in 1 gallon jugs. It does wonders for cleaning out septic systems. Think its around $60 a gallon but its worth it. Can't buy it everywhere. Some places will only sell to licensed people. Plumbing supply houses usually carry it. They banned it here in Mass a few years ago, or at least thats what the local supply houses said. We would go to RI to get it. Now they sell it again. The other thing you can do is flush it yourself. Put a brass spray nozzle on the end of a garden house and push it in and out of the pipe. The nasty black goo will flush back out of the pipe where you are feeding the hose. Takes some time. Its nasty. You better have a way of catching that sludge and doing something with it. Before I installed a new septic at my house, I flushed out the old system like this. Went from the D box out and had a sump pump in the D box pumping the nasty into the woods. Did a fantastic job, and if it wasn't for the fact that the ground water had risen to a point where my old leaching field was under water, I would have been good. Instead I had to build a new system in the front of the house, and then, because the well was in the front yard, had to drill a new deep well in the back yard.

Good luck. My parents had been lucky when they built the current house in '98/99. The original septic was put in in '73, but was serviceable.

Now my inlaw's, they got berked last year. I don't know how old it is at the house, but it utilizes a seepage pit and it was back filling from the stream right behind the house. It was needing to be pumped once a week until it was fixed.

BTW, code around here(Northern Illinois) for septic is 75ft from any well.

we don't have a well, and we're wayyyyy over that to anyone else who might.

rumor has it that 4cups of cheap arse dog food (ol roy kibble)down the crapper gets the process perkalatin' again....

Pat,

Here's the website I mentioned. There is a lot of great info here about septic systems, drain fields, etc. I used a great deal of info learned here when I designed and installed my drain field in 2014.

Natural home building source

I used the Infiltrator Chamber System in my field and it was super easy to install. You can place these straight on the earth or on top of rock for maximum drainage. They work in long runs or in a field with minimal space required between runs. The Natural Home PAGE on these has a lot of great info.

I ringed my entire field with THIS geotextile fabric and covered the entire field with it as well to keep roots out of the system.

To stop having to dig up my access port every time I added THESE risers to both the main access port and where the exit and the FILTER is located. Adding a filter is essential if you don't currently have one. This alone will seriously extend the life of your field. I got my filter from my tank pumping guy but ordered the risers and caps from Septic Solutions and the were great to deal with.

Lastly, as I mentioned it is essential to run your laundry wastewater into a separate french drain or field from your septic tank/field. The fibers in wastewater clog up a system quicker than E36 M3 (literally). I installed the FILTROL 160 and am amazed at the stuff it pulls out. I seriously have to swap out my filters (cleanable) about every 10-15 loads depending on what is being washed.

I hope that your system holds together until your Pubic Works gets you on sewer. If not, I hope this information helps.