| CAUSES OF SEPTIC SYSTEM FAILURE |
SOLUTIONS |
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Septic tanks seldom fail, the soil, or drainfield fails when it becomes plugged and the effluent can no longer migrate through the soil. The drainfield essentially becomes a dead pool of water. In most cases, these failures occur when it becomes plugged with solids that were supposed to remain in the tank. These failures are usually a combination of factors and can be avoided and in some cases, damages can even be reversed.
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Failures can be avoided by learning how a septic system functions, how to properly use it, and what steps you can take to protect it. The basics of protecting a system are really quite simple, once you realize that they work on a bacterial process (good bacteria eating bad bacteria) and bacteria don’t eat plastic like polyester and nylon...too many harsh cleaning solutions will kill off the good bacteria. Also a septic system can only handle a certain amount of water per day. If you put more water down the drain than it can handle, you will overload the system.
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The homeowner puts more water down the drain than the system can handle, hydraulically over-loading the system.
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Install water-saving appliances, devices, and practice water-saving techniques. Repair plumbing leaks. Leaking toilet valves are a major culprit of hydraulic overload, putting hundreds of gallons of water through the system every day.
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Fine solids from washing machines (lint) and garbage disposals do not have the mass to settle in the tank. Instead they remain in suspension until reaching the drainfield where they plug the pores of the soilbed.
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Install filters for the washing machine to remove the fine solids from the discharge and do not use or minimize the use of garbage disposals.
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Chemicals are over-used killing the bacteria in the system stopping the treatment (and breakdown of solids) process.
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Conserve chemical usage. Automatic toilet bowl cleaners can be very hard on a system because they kill the bad bacteria in the toilet, but the killing process continues throughout the system.
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Periods of heavy water use do not allow solids to settle in the tank and are flushed out to the drainfield.
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Water use should be spread out. Do one or two loads of laundry per day rather than 10 - 15 loads on Saturday morning.
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Baffles in the tank are not of the proper size or fall off allowing solids to float out to the drainfield.
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Exit baffle should be replaced with effluent filters. These cleanable filters prevent the larger solids from reaching the drainfield.
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Solids are allowed to build-up in the tank leaving little settling room for newly introduced solids.
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Have the tank pumped and inspected every one to three years. Tanks should be pumped and inspected through the manhole cover, not the inspection pipe.
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Vehicles are allowed to drive over the drainfield, compacting the soil and destroying the natural (drainage) structure of the soil.
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Keep vehicular and heavy foot traffic off the drainfield. Plugged/compacted drainfields can be rejuvenated by having the soil fractured. This fracturing creates thousands of tiny fissures that allow the soil to drain and aerobic bacterial colonies to re-populate.
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Sodium (salt) in wastewater can bind with certain types of clay soils causing the soil to seal.
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A solid de-flocculent can be used to correct sodium damaged soil. A min-septic system can be installed to receive the discharge from the water softener to prevent this damage.
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Do you have water softener? These devices can put several hundred gallons of water down the drain every week that is not contaminated and does not need to go through the treatment process. Also, if you have the salt type water softener, the sodium can harm your drainfield by causing the soils to seal rather than stay porous and breathable.
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Up-grade your softener with a newer efficient model that uses less water and regenerates on demand (when you use X number of gallons of water) instead of a timer system that regenerates whether you use water or not. You can also install a mini-septic system for your softener.
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