A Real Crappy Problem (Cleaning Septic Tank)

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

We purchased a home and rural wooded acerage a couple of years ago. We do not live there full time yet as we are fixing up the mid-1970's constructed home. The house is located along the top of a ridge, the septic tank is located at the bottom of the ridge. A run-off creek with about a 4-foot depth is about 100 feet from septic and finger system. Former owner said they never had the septic pumped for 20-something years. (oh-oh). Problem: 50-foot dropoff from house is too steep for septic tank service truck to pump. Four-foor creek barrier won't allow his big truck to cross. There are too many trees for large septic tank truck to wind through woods. Even if he could, when he leaves he has 1,000 gallons of liquid weight added which would probably cause him to become stuck except for drought time of year. My solution? Using trash pump for fill a 250-gallon tank on a trailer pulled by my tractor. Tractor is small enough it can get to septic area. Pump off sludge 250 gallons at a time. BUT, do I land apply it like my dairy farming neighbors do to their fields? Do I let the sludge dry and apply to fields and garden? I want to be environmentally proper as well as health conscious. Any homestading allies have any experience dealing with such a crappy problem?

-- I.P. Freely (ctimes@hsonline.net), October 15, 2000

Answers

Response to A Real Crappy Problem

Here, the septic tank pumpers have to get permission and then are allowed to pump their "stuff" into one of the municipalities' sewage treatment plants. You might want to pump your stuff out yourself and take it up to the driveway or whever the sewer-pump guy can get his truck and then just pump it into his truck and let him disgard it properly for you....

Sometimes human waste can be tricky to dispose of...especially since you don't really know what the former owners of your property might have "flushed" down there during the last 30 years. You also don't know what diseases they might have carried, etc.

This is just my thoughts. I'm certainly not an expert. Good luck with revamping your house. Hopeyou get to move to the country soon!

-- Suzy in 'Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), October 15, 2000.


Response to A Real Crappy Problem

Here in Indiana you do not need a permit to land apply to your own land. Septic haulers need to have permits. However you should follow the same rules. Don't apply on frozen land. Don't apply on slopes. Apply thinly across a flat open field. Don't apply within 100' of a water body. Don't apply on fields that will be put into food crops. Apply downwind of neighbors to avoid odor complaints. Inject into the soil if you can. If you can not, then disk over the soil and application within 24 hours.

If you have doubts, ask at you local board of health.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), October 15, 2000.


Response to A Real Crappy Problem

A correctly ran septic tank doesn't ever need to be pumped. If you treat a septic tank like another rumenent animal on your place and feed it to multiply the bacteria in it, remembering that any chemicals, bleach, soap scum etc. can suffocate and kill the bacteria you could easily go 20 years like the previous owners did. Learning from the old timers around you is really the key, and though we laughed at the thought 14 years ago when we got here and started our septic tank, we were told to throw a dead chicken in it :) with our business we give this advice now to all our customers. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 16, 2000.

Response to A Real Crappy Problem

You can purchase yeast at the grocery and add to it to activate the decomposition rate if you think it is necessary. Use the wet packed- moist kind they sell in the dairy foods section. Also, you can go to the hardware store and buy "activators" in bulk packaging. This is mostly yeast, but has some other things in there. I don't know what their function is. This septic tank has been in here since 1956 and never been pumped. It needs a new field line because a tree fell on the old tile one and broke the tile, but the tank still works just fine. Just feed it.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), October 16, 2000.

Response to A Real Crappy Problem

I for one would be VERY afraid to spread the contents of my mom's septic tank on anything that I intended to grow a food crop or animal on. I've seen what kind of toxic junk she flushes (and I can't get her to stop).

I had to have the septic here cleaned out (fortunately, we could get the pumper in) because it wasn't working right -- toxic chemicals? Possibly, or overuse of commercial washing powder (many of which contain clay, I am told, and which clogs up your drain field), or just all the synthetic fiber trash from clothes washing over the years.

I didn't throw a dead chicken in (maybe I should have) when I got the place, but after the pumping, I have been dosing it monthly with a mixture of 1 lb. brown sugar dissolved in about a gallon of warm water -- add 2 packets dry yeast (or fresh, if you've got it). Let it sit and proof like for bread. When it's bubbling along nicely, flush it down. I am hoping that it was just a dead system biologically and not a clogged one... good luck.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), October 19, 2000.



Moderation questions? read the FAQ