Drain field problems

[Pudge4033]

Ok my house has a very old system the house was built in 1929 then was upgraded with septic and running water when it became available. The problem I have is that the liquid from the drain field is comming to the surface. It has been doing this for a couple of years now. We figure that it's because the fiels is to short but there is no room to extend it if we would it would end up in the neighbors yard. We don't have the finacial means to replace or update the system at this time could anyone offer advice on how to reduce/remove the problem.

[suemarkp]

I don't believe you really have much of a choice other than to replace it - the field is most likely clogged. I hope you've been pumping the tank out every 3 to 5 years and checked your baffles to make sure scum isn't going out to the field. That is the easiest way to clog up a field. You may not need to pump the tank this often, but you need to examine it each year after 3 years too see how thick the scum and sludge layers are. If they go over or under the output baffle, you're toast.

What you can do yourself is a perk test to see if the ground is even suitable (do this near the leach lines, but no into the existing bed since it may be clogged). Dig a hole about 30" deep and fill it with water a about 20" deep. Let it sit for a while and occasionally dump a bucket of water in it to get it back to the original level. Keep repeating this for about 4 hours so you saturate the soil. After the 4 hour wait, refill to 20" deep and time how long it takes the water to drain down. Take a yard stick or tape measure and put it to the bottom of the hole. Read the water depth. The rate the water leaves will change, as a 20" column of water has more pressure on it than a 6" column of water. About every 15 minutes, measure the depth again until there is only about 4" of water left in the hole. Look at your data and calculate the minutes per inch between 15 minute readings (e.g. 2 inches in 15 minutes is 15/2 = 7.5 minutes per inch). Pick the average from all your readings.

A system that perks at 5 to 10 minutes per inch requires the smallest field, and at 51-60 minutes/inch it will be double the size of the 5-10 field. Anything slower than 60 minutes/inch, and you need to have a special field install which will be big bucks if you can even do it.

This rate will tell you how big the system need to be when you replace it. There is a newer type of drainfield call "Infiltrator" which requires that you dig a 3' wide trench to about 24" of depth. It does not require gravel, but uses 30" wide plastic circular drainfield sections that are kind of pricey. Each piece is about 3' long and you can run them straight or circular or back and forth. It is much easier to put in, but still costs about the same in the end. You can, however, usually install a field of about half the normal length with the infiltrator -vs- a normal gravel and 4" pipe system. I had mine replaced and it was about $5K for 150' of Infiltrator (three 48' sections) installed. A gravel field would have had to be 300' long. My soil perks well at 5-10 min/inch and I have a system designed for 3 people.

[Pudge4033]

ok thank you for your reply. Seems like I'll have to replace it so now I have to go find the funds to do this.