Grass is always greener...... Over septic drain field?

[Tegbert]

Wondering if anyone here knows how bad this might be or what I can do to check. I've heard it both ways that green grass on your drain field is a bad sign but also told from some that it is a sign everything is working as it should. The green grass starts at the edge of the tank.



House was built in 1974 of course the septic was installed then too and as you can see with the attached as built diagram it's not the greatest. Although I am pretty sure that someone has in the past changed or added to the field from some telltale signs around the property. I had it pumped last October after 5 years of use and the pumper dude was hesitant to take my money to pump it because of how it was working. Said it had hardly any sludge for the time between pumping's and could go at least another 2 years in his opinion. I had him pump it anyway as I wanted to install a riser on the tank, and he was already here. No slow drains or gurgling of any kind.

From what I can remember this grass area has always been greener since we have lived here. But our backyard neighbor insists that this is a sign that it is failing. The area has settled a bit. The area is not saturated with water or spongy. He and the other backyard neighbor replaced theirs a few years ago and our next door neighbor just finished getting a new drain field installed two weeks ago because of failure.

The outlet of the tank I dug down to I did find a slight leak on the lower part of the PVC pipe that I was told I could use hydraulic cement on to seal it up. Going to do that in the next couple of days.



So, I dug a hole in the middle of this patch and found a line. Our soil is very sandy like and while the soil was darker like it was wet it too wasn't saturated. The pipe in this area is white solid pvc.



So, I then dug a hole right where the green ends and dead grass starts. This area had whatever fabric they use plus rock inside. Dry soil.

Dug a hole in between the two and reached the pipe again. Also wrapped in the fabric but no rock and the pipe seem similar to the kind that has the holes in it for drain fields. I am not sure if it is, but I can squeeze it unlike pvc.



I do realize that the play area is probably in a bad spot but as you can see from the as built the tank is on the opposite side of the house. I assumed that somehow it got flipped or changed because I could always see the slight depression in the ground of the lines.

Just wondering if I should do more digging and investigating or patch the leak at the tank and wait since we have no other signs or issues right now. I do know that there is wisteria growing all over in this area from the previous owners who had a giant one in the back yard that I removed (well above ground at least as I still find some sprouting up now and then.) The concern I have is that there is a solid PVC pipe or should be solid in most of this green area.

 

[gzecc]

If I were to guess. Looks like the straight line that exits the tank is not distributing to the other leach lines. Assuming the picture I'm looking out in your diagram is a leach field. If thats the case you need to find the T's and inspect.

 

[tlc1976]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen it to that extreme, with the rest of the lawn dead. But every house I’ve lived in has had heavier growth over the drainfield, and no septic problems. My dad’s house which he has been in for 39 years, system from the 70s. My old house which I lived in for 17 years, system from 1982. And this house which I’ve lived in for 6 1/2 years, system from the early 80s.

 

[BigJ273]

It’s perfectly normal. You probably don’t use enough water for it to reach the extended leach lines enough to make a difference. Your seeing the green in the area that always gets water leached to it, because it’s right after the tank. Roebic leach and drain field opener is an easy to use liquid product you can use if that makes you feel better. If you know where your distribution box is, it’s best to pour it in there. Otherwise just flush it down the toilet. It helps clear out your leach field. I use it a few times a year just to ease my mind. But I think what you’re seeing is normal. Just my opinion

 

[brenndatomu]

Its a source of water, and nutrients...it'll be green(er). I'd say if you are not having problems then its fine.
Many times in the summer when most of the grass is dead and brown you can see right where the lines run...just look for the green lines.

 

[BigJ273]

Amazon product ASIN B006MQUU24

 

[zrock]

Nothing wrong with that at all.. By the sounds of it the field was installed properly. More than likely you have a concrete tank that usually weep a bit and nothing wrong with that as well.. By the sounds of the condition of what was in your tank their is not enough people in the house to work the system to its capacity. Even though the guy that pumped it out said it looked good, best practice is to have the tank pumped every 5 years..

I would not worry about it and water the rest of your lawn so it all looks green ..LOL

 

[GrumpyDad]

Why dont you consider a dye test?

Consider this, two things may be happening. Either 1 water is rising to the top and the soil isnt able to keep up and maybe the gravel is clogged and cement like or 2. the nutrients have risen to the top but water is draining fine.

During the hottest months my grass turns brownish and goes into partial hibernation. However, where our dog goes potty - it's green, lush, and grows 3x faster than the rest of the grass. Nutrient rich grass uses MUCH less water to grow.
It could very well be that your leach field is failing, and that the water is rising up toward the top to the point that the grass roots can benefit (grass roots dont grow that deep, maybe 5"?).

This is where a dye test could benefit you. Look for some videos on how to do this. Maybe even dig under that grass a bit and see what you see. Dye, smells like sh*t, looks like sh*t?

Listen, not trying to disparage your local boy septic company, but Id venture to say they would be more likely to say ...yep you need a new drain field than no...you are ok, because they make ALOT of money replacing a drain field.

have you ever seen a failing drain field? I have. Neighbor has had one for many many years. It's just on area that it leaks out of the side so he is careful not to run a tractor over that area and just lets it be. Not that you can do that with your property, but when it fails you'll see signs like that, and could have a backup in the house.

 

[Highbeam]

I'm an engineer in WA. It's almost certainly fine unless you get backing up or mushy soil right there. Stop digging holes in the drainfield, that's about the worst thing you can do. Gravity drainfields are progressive failure systems meaning the effluent goes to the first hole it finds and floods it until it fails/clogs and then goes to the next hole. If this green spot was at the end of the line I would be more worried!

You can have your drainfield lines camera inspected and jetted clean without permits but it gets really difficult if you need to repair anything. Not just expensive but permitting is a nightmare.

Old systems like this can have low spots in the pipes as well as settling over the top. I like to level out the top with sandy topsoil to prevent the low spot taking on excess surface water.

Most healthy drainfields will have a pattern of brown stripes right over the gravel/pipe, with green for a foot or three on either side as the adjacent soil wicks up the moisture and nutrients, and then back to brown as you move away from the pipe in the summer.

My personal system was built in 1963 and is gravity like yours. Still works great. No flushing wipes!

 

[BigJ273]

I'm an engineer in WA. It's almost certainly fine unless you get backing up or mushy soil right there. Stop digging holes in the drainfield, that's about the worst thing you can do. Gravity drainfields are progressive failure systems meaning the effluent goes to the first hole it finds and floods it until it fails/clogs and then goes to the next hole. If this green spot was at the end of the line I would be more worried!

You can have your drainfield lines camera inspected and jetted clean without permits but it gets really difficult if you need to repair anything. Not just expensive but permitting is a nightmare.

Old systems like this can have low spots in the pipes as well as settling over the top. I like to level out the top with sandy topsoil to prevent the low spot taking on excess surface water.

Most healthy drainfields will have a pattern of brown stripes right over the gravel/pipe, with green for a foot or three on either side as the adjacent soil wicks up the moisture and nutrients, and then back to brown as you move away from the pipe in the summer.

My personal system was built in 1963 and is gravity like yours. Still works great. No flushing wipes!

I second that! For the love of God, DO NOT flush wipes

 

[GrumpyDad]

I second that! For the love of God, DO NOT flush wipes

Get a bidet

 

[GrumpyDad]

Wondering if anyone here knows how bad this might be or what I can do to check. I've heard it both ways that green grass on your drain field is a bad sign but also told from some that it is a sign everything is working as it should. The green grass starts at the edge of the tank.

View attachment 298834

House was built in 1974 of course the septic was installed then too and as you can see with the attached as built diagram it's not the greatest. Although I am pretty sure that someone has in the past changed or added to the field from some telltale signs around the property. I had it pumped last October after 5 years of use and the pumper dude was hesitant to take my money to pump it because of how it was working. Said it had hardly any sludge for the time between pumping's and could go at least another 2 years in his opinion. I had him pump it anyway as I wanted to install a riser on the tank, and he was already here. No slow drains or gurgling of any kind.

Link Removed

From what I can remember this grass area has always been greener since we have lived here. But our backyard neighbor insists that this is a sign that it is failing. The area has settled a bit. The area is not saturated with water or spongy. He and the other backyard neighbor replaced theirs a few years ago and our next door neighbor just finished getting a new drain field installed two weeks ago because of failure.

The outlet of the tank I dug down to I did find a slight leak on the lower part of the PVC pipe that I was told I could use hydraulic cement on to seal it up. Going to do that in the next couple of days.

View attachment 298835

So, I dug a hole in the middle of this patch and found a line. Our soil is very sandy like and while the soil was darker like it was wet it too wasn't saturated. The pipe in this area is white solid pvc. View attachment 298833

So, I then dug a hole right where the green ends and dead grass starts. This area had whatever fabric they use plus rock inside. Dry soil.

Dug a hole in between the two and reached the pipe again. Also wrapped in the fabric but no rock and the pipe seem similar to the kind that has the holes in it for drain fields. I am not sure if it is, but I can squeeze it unlike pvc.

View attachment 298836

I do realize that the play area is probably in a bad spot but as you can see from the as built the tank is on the opposite side of the house. I assumed that somehow it got flipped or changed because I could always see the slight depression in the ground of the lines.

Just wondering if I should do more digging and investigating or patch the leak at the tank and wait since we have no other signs or issues right now. I do know that there is wisteria growing all over in this area from the previous owners who had a giant one in the back yard that I removed (well above ground at least as I still find some sprouting up now and then.) The concern I have is that there is a solid PVC pipe or should be solid in most of this green area.

View attachment 298831

I just realized, that you and I have the EXACT same playset from Costco. PITA to put together, stain wore away very quickly.
The railing that goes over the slide area on mine rotted so I recreated the rotted pieces with some decking material I had left over.
Also my trust was wearing down on the viability of that swing set part being held to the side of the placeset so I screwed a 2x4 under that and ran two down to the ground to take the load off. Finally the ladder/rock wall climbing thing, where those rock wall boards attached they can be pulled away from the ladder thing easily. That entire thing rotted where the screws entered so I put a 2x4 behind that up to the main part of the set and down to the ground, and screwed the ladder into that and each rock wall board into the 2x4.

 

[tlc1976]

Get a bidet

Or a garbage can.

 

[Tegbert]

I just realized, that you and I have the EXACT same playset from Costco. PITA to put together, stain wore away very quickly.
The railing that goes over the slide area on mine rotted so I recreated the rotted pieces with some decking material I had left over.
Also my trust was wearing down on the viability of that swing set part being held to the side of the placeset so I screwed a 2x4 under that and ran two down to the ground to take the load off. Finally the ladder/rock wall climbing thing, where those rock wall boards attached they can be pulled away from the ladder thing easily. That entire thing rotted where the screws entered so I put a 2x4 behind that up to the main part of the set and down to the ground, and screwed the ladder into that and each rock wall board into the 2x4.

Yeah this thing is old like 7-10 years. We have had it for 6 and our friends had it longer but not sure how long. Its going away soon, the kids hardly use it anymore.

 

[brenndatomu]

I second that! For the love of God, DO NOT flush wipes

X3...bad news for city sewer systems too!

 

[mellow]

Looks like my leach field. Is your distro box ok? Some of that era are concrete and roots get to them and they fail and leak. I try to put greenpig shock in my distro box once or twice a year just to keep it flowing out to the leach lines.

 

[begreen]

Guess where the septic lines runs? It really shows up during this dryest summer on record. There is no sign of sponginess, dampness or smell. It's always been this way. The neighbor's line is the same way.


The system is old, but with no issues. We get the tank pumped every 4-5 yrs and each time they say we're doing great. No garbage disposal going into the system and never used any wipes. We were warned to not wash polyester fleece if possible. The fibers do not degrade and can build up and plug the lines.

 

[Tegbert]

Guess where the septic lines runs? It really shows up during this dryest summer on record. There is no sign of sponginess, dampness or smell. It's always been this way. The neighbor's line is the same way.
View attachment 299339

The system is old, but with no issues. We get the tank pumped every 4-5 yrs and each time they say we're doing great. No garbage disposal going into the system and never used any wipes. We were warned to not wash polyester fleece if possible. The fibers do not degrade and can build up and plug the lines.

I guess I was mainly worried since my green grass area starts really close to the tank outlet and goes out about 30 feet before going brown again.

 

[Tegbert]

Looks like my leach field. Is your distro box ok? Some of that era are concrete and roots get to them and they fail and leak. I try to put greenpig shock in my distro box once or twice a year just to keep it flowing out to the leach lines.

Im not sure that I have a distribution box. The system is old and I do not know where to look to see if there is one.

 

[mellow]

Your leech lines should connect to a distribution box if you have multiple leech lines, maybe you only have 1?

 

[semipro]

We were warned to not wash polyester fleece if possible. The fibers do not degrade and can build up and plug the lines.

I think this applies to most clothing that is not a natural fiber like cotton.
After seeing the stuff coming out of our clothes washer we installed a drain field filter.
Post here: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/septic-tank-outlet-filter-installation.175595/

 

[Highbeam]

Your leech lines should connect to a distribution box if you have multiple leech lines, maybe you only have 1?

Not always. There are other ways to get the distribution done.

It's almost impossible to get it perfect with a gravity system. There's always a belly somewhere or an overloaded line, maybe a line that never gets used until the lower lines fill up. Especially over time as things settle.

 

[tdmartin7]

I have a 23 year old leach field that has green grass above the leach field lines in the summer. Always have since the system was new. Just for a check I dug up the distribution box and ran 5 gallons a minute from a bathtub for an hour, so 300 gallons and I have a 4 bedroom house. This picture is at the one hour mark. Turned off the water supply in the house and checked the distrubition box a few minutes later and all the outlet pipes were dry.

So I would say green grass on the leach field lines, especially in the summer is normal.

By the way, I read that to do this test you should put 50 gallons per bedroom. So, I actually put 100 gallons more than the test requires.