To the Editor:
We have been out here for nine years, kicking, screaming, yelling about the subject of Zan Ewing’s article in the May issue of Pumper titled, “Be a Drainfield Detective.” Upon inspecting many septic systems, Ewing voiced the concern that “many septic systems have been replaced that were not failing ...”
When we first started American Septic Service, this is what gave us the jump-start in real estate inspecting before the practice became popular. A real estate agent was advised of a failed system she represented and, you guessed it, it had a severed pipe at the outlet delivery. A contractor started installing a new field (from the end of the field) and got to the tank to connect, and whoops!
I can’t say it too many times: It all begins and ends with the tank — open it, work your way out. We also have a decade of tanks in Cochise County that have a T-baffle extension sitting within 8 inches of the bottom of the tank. The scenario goes like this: The pumper is called out, he pumps through the 4-inch inspection port, the tank backs up again shortly. The third time around, it is declared a drainfield problem and an installer is called. The issue was not the drainfield, but rather that sludge had risen too high and surrounded the outlet pipe so effluent could not leave the tank as fast as it was coming in. Open the tank, clean and pump it properly, and the problem is solved.
Ewing’s article encouraged me that someone else sees the problem. I could tell, as I read the article, Ewing knows when a problem is caused at installation. There are classic discoveries. I call it when I see it that way, and the sanitarian has cautioned me not to give my opinion because the ground can settle. That is just plain false (I am being reserved in my language).
If the installer would follow the rules for compaction or undisturbed earth, there would not be the dipped, crimped, or severed deliveries. When you have a pool of sewage and black biomat goo, it is a no-brainer. I have done a study on 278 septic inspections (collating 50 points of discovery on our point-of-sale form) and 39 percent were baffle-related issues, most of them on newer installations where the baffles are not fixed in the tank casting.
As Ewing noted, most of these problems do not show up the first few months and sometimes for years. When the soil finally gets saturated at the end of the tank where the pipe is not performing, it backs up or the pipe gets occluded. However, this is not an extreme case here in Cochise County; we do one of these a week. Poor installation.
In our state, you cannot go back to the installer to fix a problem after a year has passed, which is frustrating. Our state has been criticized for having overlapping certifications for inspection, installation and design. Installers still are not listening. Thank you for the insightful article.
Dawn Long
American Septic Service
Sierra Vista, Ariz.
