Does Additional Pretreatment Help Drainfield Restoration?

Periodic resting can restore drainfield performance, but additional pretreatment might be the best bet.

Dec 01, 2014 | by Jim Anderson, Ph.D. |

Onsite Septic System Troubleshooting Drainfield Restoration Drainfield Component Septic Tank Aerobic Treatment Unit (ATU) Featured

Mgreen 025 Web — Drainfield restoration success will depend on how resistive the biomat is and whether you can achieve a large enough reduction in loading to make a lasting impact.

We’ve discussed how periodically resting all parts of a drainfield can restore soil infiltration. Next we take a look at how additional pretreatment can help drainfield restoration.If the drainfield is having problems due to organic loading, you might be able to restore the drainfield with additional pretreatment, which reduces the loads to the drainfield. Over time this will help microorganisms in the soil break down the biomat, restoring some of the lost capacity.In order to determine if the system is organically overloaded, you need to analyze the septic tank effluent using two measures: biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended

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