Here’s a good question today from Dan Goddard:
Questions:
1. I don’t think that all my leech lines are working. The first leg that comes out of the tank has a couple of areas where water has surfaced and my yard is getting soggy. Can you help?
2. When washer drains we have pooling at or near the septic and bubbling in the toilet. No pooling when flushing toilet and no water backing up from other drains. Had tank pumped 1 year ago. Occasional odor near septic tank. What are your thoughts?
Answer:
Your septic system is indeed demonstating several common symptoms of leach field problems. Your leach lines are clogged with biomat. They are not allowing all of the liquid effluent leaving your septic tank to pass through to the unsaturated soil. What you see on the surface of the ground around your septic tank and leach lines is the amount of liquid the leach lines cannot absorb.
The soggy areas are merely liquid effluent that is now looking for a way out. The liquid cannot leave the trenches by the bottom and sides and must now leave the trench by absorption through the soil on top of the trenches. This absorption process breaks down the soil structure and by being constantly wet and therefore makes the soil soggy.
The pooling you have from the washer is typical of a fast and heavy slug of liquid being forced into a septic tank that has leach field problems.
It takes time for the liquid to leave the tank because the leach lines can’t take the liquid load quickly. The liquid tries to get out wherever it can in the quickest time. If the liquid cannot drain down through your leach lines it tries to come out on the surface; if there is resistance on the surface due to pooling from a previous breakout, the liquid will try and escape from the tank.
As the slug load is slowly absorbed by the leach line, the liquid disappears. The bubbling in the toilet is the displaced air caught in the inlet sewer line to the septic tank from your house that has to get out some way. As the liquid from the tank is backing up to some level into the inlet sewer line, it rises up to the easiest place to get out and that is normally the shower/tub drains or a toilet (these being the lowest drain points).
The pumping merely removed solids (assuming the pumper properly pumped your tank) and keeps the retention time for the solids separation at a correct duration. Pumping will not cure leach field problems.
The smell near the septic tank is most likely from effluent in the soil that is surfacing during the wash event. This effluent carries some organic material solubolized in the liquid and many intestinal bacteria.
The soil becomes saturated over time, has no oxygen in the soil pores and makes a usable home for the intestinal bacteria entrained in the effluent. There over time, these intestinal bacteria will create odors that we commonly refer to as septic odors. There could also be enough soil disturbance over the time the liquid has surfaced over the septic tank to make small passage ways in the soil when not filled with effluent during washing events to allow septic gases to escape to the surface.
The Septic Genie is the answer if you don’t want to tear up your yard and pocket book. This technology has cured many hundreds of septic failures just like this.
