New septic system already failed


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Old 03-12-13, 10:10 PM
T
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Unhappy New septic system already failed

Hello everyone,

My girlfriend and I live in an old 2 bedroom house that was willed to me years ago, and that I just recently finished fixing up. It is on a very small 1/3 acre triangular lot in rural Kentucky.

When we moved in, the toilet ran into an old ~350 gallon diesel fuel tank, which had to be pumped every few months. So we replaced it with a 1500 gallon duel chamber plastic tank, with a 100 foot long leach line in a 3x3 gravel ditch, as far as we could take it. A more extensive leach field is made impossible by an easement driveway (gravel) running alongside the entire length of my property, which is frequently used by heavy equipment. My property sits at the bottom of a long hill behind me, and at the bottom of a short steep hill to my left. To the right is the easement driveway, beyond which the ground does slope steeply downhill.

Long story short, when the ground is saturated due to rain/snow, our toilet won't flush. The system is completely saturated due to the rain we take off of the hillsides. ONLY the toilet emties into this tank, which we avoid flushing when it's wet out, so its not like it's a water useage issue.

The only thing I can think to do is dig a deep pit, put a sump pump in it, and then throw a hose over the driveway to drain the water down the hill, thus relieving my system. Any other ideas??

Thanks guys!
 
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Old 03-13-13, 04:59 AM
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Does sound like you need some type of drainage ditch. Is there enough room to put a decent ditch on the hillside(s) and have it cross under that driveway in a culvert so that it could flow down the hill ?
Might be issues getting the ok to culvert your neighbours driveway, and possibly local rules about the separation of septic drainage field and a ditch ..

One test you could do, is dig a hole down to the depth of the drainage pipe, on the same area but a distance from the pipe (not sure.. maybe 20ft away would do ?) to see how long after a rain that the ground water clears away on its own. If its only a matter of hours, maybe a backflow valve on the tank outlet might work (along with very minimal use of the toilet during this 'drain' period after a rain).
 
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Old 03-13-13, 05:13 AM
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I would contact your county's Health or Environmental Services Dept. and have someone come out and look over your site. I have a fair number of rental property and failed septics are a common occurrence. My county is on the poor end with a lot of low income housing and the inspectors work very hard to come up with something that will work. The inspectors agree that a solution is not to code but is the best that can be done on the site.

---

I had a similar situation with the septic at my house. It was new construction and I had room to work with so my situation was easier... My leach field lies toward the bottom of a hill in poor quality soil. A interception drain was installed uphill of the drain field to intercept water traveling through the soil and drain it off.

The interception trench is uphill of the drain field and the bottom of it is about 5' deep and sloped so one end could drain to daylight. A thin layer of clean gravel was poured in the trench and then leveled with a slight pitch to the drain end. Then a perforated pipe was placed in the center of the trench and the trench back filled with clean gravel to within a foot of the surface which was capped with soil and planted with grass.

If you don't have room to drain to daylight you could drain to a sump with a pump. As another measure you can try something like an Infiltrator chamber system for the leach field. It has a higher capacity per foot than a traditional gravel leach field line.
 
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Old 03-13-13, 07:28 AM
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Probably should have put a mound system in....Did the county approve whats there now?...

There are probably legal measures you can take, and the county would be responsible to foot the bill for a new system....
 
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Old 03-13-13, 08:02 AM
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"...the county would be responsible to foot the bill..." Now that's wishful thinking. If they do that in New Jersey I suppose your high taxes and permit fees go to something useful.
 
 

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