How can I find the leach field my septic system is using?

June 2, 2013 3:22 PM

My house has a septic system. Years and years before I purchased it, there was apparently a problem with the leach field, and the erstwhile owners rerouted to a new leach field. I thought I had a map showing both the old and new fields, but now that I need such a map, I have discovered that I apparently don't.

I know the vague locations of both the old and the new, but I don't know their exact locations or sizes, and more importantly I don't know which is the old and which is the new.

Is there a way to figure out where the active field is, hopefully without spending thousands of dollars or doing a lot of digging?

Thanks in advance.

posted by Flunkie to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

Your local building or environmental health department may have records/plans of where the leach field is. This is pretty likely if it was done any time recently and agency approval of some sort is required to install a septic system in your area (it probably is).
posted by LionIndex at 3:40 PM on June 2, 2013

In my (admittedly limited) experience, the guys that come and pump my septic tank have unerringly and immediately been able to identify the leach field on my property when I can't visually tell at all. Call a septic company and they'll probably tell you for the price of your pump-out.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 3:42 PM on June 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

The two ways mentioned, go to local town and see all the permits and drawings or ask the guy who pumps the tank have worked for me. Actually, the wrong plans were on file in the building department, but when I asked the pumper guy, he told me and then I found the right plan that was misfiled in one of my neighbors lots file.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 4:25 PM on June 2, 2013

Most plumbers these days have a camera on the end of cable they feed down into pipe systems, and they can put it down in the septic tank (after it is pumped) and see where the outlet and inlet are and then you can estimate the size of the field from there. A lot of the companies that do pumping also do plumbing and installation of systems and this would be where to start.

I work for a small town with lots of septic systems still in service and we have very limited records of where they are, and neither does the county. We sometimes have records of where the sewer service is located, more reliable on the newer (say 20 years) installations. And in a lot of cases where it appears we have records, the contractor didn't install it as shown on the plans.

BTW a BIG reason systems fail is people start parking cars/RVs on the leech field and compact the soil and it can longer function, or even better, they extend their house (without permits of course) over the field.
posted by bartonlong at 4:37 PM on June 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

Isn't one patch greener than the rest of the place? That would be the active patch. The other - why does it matter? If it is dry, can't you treat it like any other part of your land?
posted by GeeEmm at 2:17 AM on June 3, 2013

When I had a home inspection, the inspector ran a LOT of water. The septic pump dutifully pumped and pumped and pumped. It was a dry spell, and the leach area got soggy after a day or so.
posted by theora55 at 12:30 PM on June 3, 2013