Septic System replacemnt

[BadDad]

I hope this is the appropriate place for my question...
So, our house was built in 73, they put in a traditional gravity fed septic with 475' of leach field
in 2002 the original system must have failed and they added an additional 300' of leach field.
well last year we bought the house and all was fine and dandy.
we put in an above ground pool, but sunk it about 30" and inadvertently cut the new leach field. fast forward a little over a year and occasionally we can smell the septic system, its about 30' behind our house
last weekend we were hosting my daughter's birthday party and someone messed with the outside toilet and it ran nonstop for a few hours. well, the septic started coming out of the ground at the tank lid.

Here's the issue. our ground is clay and will not pass a perc test so we have to go aerobic.

ive got several companies bidding, but they're proposing different solutions.

One company is proposing a 2100 gallon 3 chamber tank and completely eliminating the 50+ year old single chamber 900 gallon septic tank.
The other company is proposing to put in a 1900 gallon 4 chamber tank, but tying into the old septic, using that as the "trash" tank and the new tank just for the aeration and treatment.

both will have sprinklers to empty the tank.

What are your guys' thoughts on the two different systems. I personally would prefer to ditch the old tank.

 

[BadDad]

Just a wild thought, but I am fascinated by the aerobic septic process and have spoke with the owner at aero-stream... they make an air unit along with a bacterial growth "brush" and i'm thinking.. there is 8' from the septic to the distribution box.

what if i added another tank in-between the septic and d-box, and used that as a an aerobic treatment tank, i'm thinking i an fit a 500 gallon tank there...

if you look at the 2nd picture on the left (which is the east side of our property, pointing north and the well is south) the 75' branch is where we put out pool and looking at the picture on the left it seems that they ran the new line along the old line, i do recall there being two lines that we hit when we put the pool in.... ugh.

my thought is implementing something like this: https://www.wte-ltd.co.uk/septictankconversion.html

and lastly i'm thinking of renting a mini excavator and digging up the original line that goes to the new 300' run and reconnecting it on the other side of the pool... this hopefully should save me from having to spend 9-10k on a new system.

if you look to the top left where the double gates are, that is where the septic system is and the lines ran straight to the area of the pool.

And thats where we sunk it about 30" going across the whole diameter was the lines and gravel...

I did call a plumber out when we first hit the leach field and they said it shouldnt be a problem as we have much more lines... but i guess that the old lines are clogged up by the forest above them...

 

[Sponsor]

 

[BadDad]

I'll just keep posting until someone chimes in lol
So i spoke with aero-stream again. we are going to keep it simple,
skip all the stuff i was thinking about earlier and just pump the tank and add their system to my septic tank.
I will rent a backhoe/excavator and dig up the line before the pool and reroute it around and back to the other side to reconnect the new(er) leach field..

hopefully this should save me from spending 9-13k

 

[Jeff H Young]

Found your post and though Ive plumbed since around 1987 Ive never worked on septic hopefully others offer advice Ive got none to give on where to learn more

 

[Blue Oaks]

What do you mean by sprinklers? Are you seriously considering spraying the septic water/material into the air? How can that be sanitary?

Houses around me are built on clay and the septic systems work fine, often for decades with no service. My advice would be to connect an new leach field to where it was severed, and consider suing the contractor who did the damage. They would have known they did it as sewage would have been flowing, or at least dripping out the pipe I would think.

 

[Jeff H Young]

What do you mean by sprinklers? Are you seriously considering spraying the septic water/material into the air? How can that be sanitary?

Houses around me are built on clay and the septic systems work fine, often for decades with no service. My advice would be to connect an new leach field to where it was severed, and consider suing the contractor who did the damage. They would have known they did it as sewage would have been flowing, or at least dripping out the pipe I would think.

50 year old system , 300 ft was aded 22 years ago presumeably not just for kicks. so the place has had issues with the septic system for decades. A well engineered and installed system takes into account the clay and the ability to perc . whether its in morgan hill or anywhere else. Maybe its poor design , maintenance or the original installation

 

[GReynolds929]

What do you mean by sprinklers? Are you seriously considering spraying the septic water/material into the air? How can that be sanitary?

Houses around me are built on clay and the septic systems work fine, often for decades with no service. My advice would be to connect an new leach field to where it was severed, and consider suing the contractor who did the damage. They would have known they did it as sewage would have been flowing, or at least dripping out the pipe I would think.

Look up aerobic septic systems...