At some risk of getting back to the original topic :

About 6 months ago I had my septic tank replaced. It was a steel tank (I know, steel is a terrible choice for septic tank, no clue why it was used). It was also located under the drive way on the side of the house where heavy things drive all the time. It looked pretty bad when it was dug up. It was rusted through like "tear on the dotted line" along the water line on both sides. The leech line was half plugged, and needed to be "fixed".

Fixing the leech line means cutting into it where it stops being good, zig zagging to one side, and installing a new extension.

I put in a new traffic rated concrete 1,200 gallon, double chamber tank. The traffic rated tank can have a semi drive over it and not have a problem.

The previous owner had it pumped exactly once - right before we bought the house. Our neighbor let his go for 5 years and ended up replacing the whole leech line. Lots of bucks.

Our local pumpers say that the tanks can go 3 or 4 years but only with some risk - better to pump every two years. Experience, talking with neighbors, bears this out. Those that have pumped every two years have had no leech field problems (but the steel tanks are all failing - they were installed in 1988). Those that go 3 or 4 years or longer get bad smells, backed up systems, and have to replace the whole thing.

Pick your pony, take your ride. We decided we would pump every two years whether it needs it or not, so the new tank was installed with a traffic rated cast iron manhole cover on each chamber.

Fitch

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