leech fields

[cheryl palone]

I was on my cell phone when I was replying to the messages above however I had everything all typed out and lost the message. I will let all know what we found out when I get home and can type on my laptop! .

[cheryl palone]

Harry Chickpea~
You are correct in saying that it certainly is the neighbors property for the following reasons:
We did the dye test, I had some tablets plus I used some blue food dye which really worked well also. I ran water twice in the tub as full as I could get them and NOTHING came out of that pipe that we spoke of earlier and in the video. My husband was up at the leach field on his cell phone as I was letting the water out of the tubs. We even waited for at least an hour and still nothing coming from the pipe. We have not seen anything coming from that pipe since Thursday, June 5th. (of course) Our septic pump, and flow is fine and everything is dry around our manifold which would indicate to us that there are no crushed pipes (since we already have been through rodeo.)


On ours and some of the others up there, there is a pressure pipe that is attached to the manifold and we know exactly what that is for. It's how they test the pressure getting from your septic pump to the leach field manifold. Everything there is fine. (Been there before too)

Now, what we did notice is that there is a pressure pipe on the property (leach field) of our neighbors. HOWEVER, there is NO manifold near or ON that property. This house was built 2 1/2 years ago and the builder had filed bankruptcy so the home was in foreclosure. The house was just bought about a month ago. This is the property that is beside ours and is in all probability the culprit as to why there is raw sewage coming out of that pipe located on the boundary line of ours and this property.

To answer your statement: "there are parallel pipes that run, one for each homesite, along and up to a field where they branch off and serve individual leach fields, each sized for the house on the particular parcel." YES, that is absolutely correct! We know that because when the county had to come out because of problems we had, they brought a map of each home indicating each pipe "color" that went with each home and the lots are all marked accordingly to #'s on the map. Also these pipes are all buried in the ground together but they are all individual lines from each persons homes. Our house would be the first home and is farthest from the leach field. Then you have the next house and that line is the ground along with ours, and then the next house etc. There are six houses that all have the individual lines in the ground all buried in the same spot. Hence the reason they "color coded with a "DOT" on each persons line. We actually saw this too when they had to dig up a certain spot to make sure it wasn't a crushed pipe, which it wasn't. That was a year and half ago.

So, we believe the issue we have now is narrowed down and will pursue the neighbor and contact the county to get this straightened out.
It is a mess and we have never had to deal with such things since where we used to live we had city water.
Thank you again so much for everyone's input and help.
I am contacting the county Monday morning, and as a side note, the man who owns the leach field property had mowed that property about a week ago with a riding mower, I don't know how he got through all those high weeds and small trees but he did. He was up at the fields when we were and my husband was asking him, "where is your manifold?" The gentleman was from Portuga and doesn't speak a bit of English, so we couldn't even explain to him what was going on. Well now, isn't that just out luck???
And someone had mentioned that tree roots are the worst thing for leach fields, and we were told that by the county inspector!!!! REALLY? So why were they allowed to put 3/4 of the leach fields on this site? This whole thing is just ridiculous.

[harry chickpea]

I bush hog on a riding mower from time to time as well. You came out of the mess better than I had expected. Sounds like neighbor needs to front the cost of some plumbing at no expense to you.

FWIW, raw sewage in a fairly isolated spot like that is not a big deal. Give it a couple months of summer heat and it will be gone naturally. This is actually the best thing to do. If there is a health or pest issue involved such as flies, spreading some agricultural lime will stop it and reduce any smell.

[cheryl palone]

Harry,
Thank you so much for all your responses and information. Especially the info in the raw sewage which seems to only spew out occasionally. I am so happy I found this website. If we have any further issues regarding this matter, you will be the first person I contact. Thanks again!!