Hello Friends,

I apologize for my absence but I come seeking advice. I bought a house (mistake) and am on a septic tank with a seepage pit. The seepage pit fills way above the groundwater level with grey water. This causes the septic tank to back up because the grey water is waiting to disperse to the water table and starts waiting in the septic. I was told by a sketchy septic guy that I could pour chlorine or put chlorine tablets down the access port of the seepage pit (not the septic) and that it will clean out the clogged areas. I feel that adding poison to the ground water table is not really the answer. He mentioned they used to pour hydrochloric acid down those in the past to clean them, but it is now illegal.

Has anyone delt with this problem? Being a new homeowner I am already extremely strapped for cash and am looking for a cost-effective/legal/ethical way to handle the problem. Septic crews in the area are reporting $650-$800 to just treat and clean the pit with chemicals but without exposing it. If they have to dig it, it will be about $5,000-$10,000. I am humbly seeking any advice that you guys can give.

Tech Info on the PIT/Septic.

Septic:
Capacity-900/g

Seepage Pit:
Diameter-38"
Depth Overall-36'
Depth Effective-31'6"
Distance From Septic-9'

Thank You in advance for any replies.

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-"Young" James

"To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like." -Steven Hawking

How recent was the home purchase and was the condition of the septic system/pit it when it was last "cleaned out" mentioned in the sellers disclosure(s)?

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Dr Who Fan thank you for the reply. I bought the house over a year ago. It was not disclosed in the seller's disclosures. They did, however, note that the tank was pumped prior to the showing of the house. This problem started as soon as 2-3 months of owning the house.

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-"Young" James

"To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like." -Steven Hawking

DO NOT put chlorine into a septic tank - it will "kill" the tank along with the seepage pit and then you will smell all about it :-( (Done that and had to burn the tee-shirt, jeans, underclothes, shoes, socks, bath.....)
The best way is to get the tank drained (pumped out) then properly "rodded out" to get rid of the blockage.
On the farm I used to visit every summer for over a decade every couple of years the same sort of thing would happen, and the best way of getting the tank going again was to chuck a few gallons on"well gone-off" milk in, on top of a few gallons of the normal contents (about a week's worth of "normal activities" was sufficient).


(to get the well off milk we would stand a half-full 10 gallon drum in the sun for a couple of days and let it do its thing. It is far better using unpasteurised, un-skimmed milk, but it will work with the latter, it just takes longer to get going properly.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

It was not disclosed in the seller's disclosures. They did, however, note that the tank was pumped prior to the showing of the house.

"just noted" sounds suspicious - without a receipt/invoice showing what exactly was done...

This problem started as soon as 2-3 months of owning the house.

Probably NOTHING was done in YEARS. A septic system does not fill up in 2-3 months.

You might want to contact an attorney to go over the home sale documents to see if there is any legal recourse if you have to pay a contractor to clean it out.

Similar thing occurred to a relative of mine almost 2 years ago. Their septic system started backing up about 2 months after moving in and the back yard was almost always soggy in places even though it had not rained much.

It was revealed by the contractor my family member hired to "fix the problem" that HE was the SAME contractor who had been to the home about 3 months prior to the sale to "determine what was wrong" and provided the previous home owners a written estimate but was never hired to do the job.

My family member contacted an attorney who took legal action against BOTH realtors, BOTH real estate companies and the home sellers (husband and wife). They WON summary judgement for the full cost of repairs along with attorney and court fees against all of them for failing to properly disclose they knew of problems with the septic system prior to the sale.

Like Rob said you do not want to put bleach into the septic. Best to contact one or more reliable contractors to determine how bad it is and what they recommend being done.

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Over here it is common practice to pump out the tank prior to selling "just to be nice".

A 900 gallon septic tank will fill up in about three months, especially if it is being fed by more than just the p&P waste. Remember one flush is about a gallon, so a family of four will do at least 4 gallons per day, and 3 months is roughly 100 days - so a minimum of 400 gallons, probably more like 2/person/day so 800gallons - chuck in the bath/shower drain and the rate goes up REALLY quickly. That tank was not living when you moved in, or you have killed it through using normal bleaches when cleaning the toilets - again I've had to burn the tee-shirt.

Remember septic tanks are a living things, not dead things - the bacteria in them help to liquefy the solids and so make it easier to get rid of them.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Make sure you put Rid-X down your toilet at least once a month. http://www.rid-x.com/about-septic-systems/



And don't flush anything down the toilet except your poo and septic-safe toilet paper.

I can't help with the problem you mentioned. I know nothing about seepage pits.

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~Sue~

Brewer's yeast has been also used.

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https://inspectapedia.com/septic/Seepage_Pits.php
Sure sounds like the previous owners overflowed the septic tank several times into the seepage pit and now that beast is clogged. I don't think there is a cheap fix.

Rid X does wonders

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