An interesting septic root issue

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Rslaback

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Rural subdivision, built in 1995, PVC lines into a concrete tank.

The roots of a nearby boxelder tree have started to cause issues with the septic system. Fine roots have grown through either the cracks in the riser sections, the lid of the tank or where the riser meets the tank. Regardless of the actual crack they are growing through, the root mass is growing around and then plugging up the inlet pipe right above the baffle.

Ideally the tree would go bye bye but it currently houses a 6 year-old's tire swing and preferably it could stay at least for a few more years.

I'm familiar with treating the system when roots are growing through the cracks in the pipe underground but I'm not sure how well that type of treatment is going to work when the roots don't actually sit in the pipe. Is mechanical control my only hope short of cutting the tree down? Since I can access the roots from the vent pipe could I just topically treat them with something every so often?
 

Reach4

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Copper sulfate crystals makes areas taste bad to roots. This is one brand.
 

Reach4

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I would sprinkle crystals onto the roots that you see, from the outside. Expect it to kill grass that you sprinkle on. So dig down below the grass. I understood that the roots were coming in at the riser and making their way to the inlet. So I would dig down around the riser, and deposit crystals down at the area where there are tree roots. Don't flush them.

If you want to kill roots in the inlet pipe, I have seen good things posted about RootX. https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/how-to-use-root-killer.22535/page-2#post-168036

For more posts that mention it, enter rootx into the search box above.

I am not a pro.
 

DW85745

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I ran into this issue for my own septic tank around 2007. Had a 40 yo mesquite tree that after undercovering the tank lid and digging
around the lid down about 6 inches, found roots had raised the lid 3 inches on one side. Amazing the strength of the roots as they grow. In my case, I emptied the tank and had a crane come in and lift the lid off the tank. Glad I did. Lot of roots inside the tank. Don't believe any root killer will get rid of those old roots and as they die / deteriorate, IMHO, chance they could go out the outlet and clog up the distribution box as well as the lines.
Kept the old tank, but out of curiosity also dug up the distribution box to check it out and was on its way out, so put a new one in.
One way to check your lines are OK, is stick a H2O hose in them and run the water for about 20 minutes each line. If drains OK -- my case --lines should be good and not need replacing.
BTW took down the tree and stump.

HTH
 
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