I live in a rural area which means I have a septic system. My home is near a river which means the water level is high. This requires an elevated leach field (or drain field, seepage bed, or soil absorption field) and a pump to lift the liquid waste up to the field from the tank.
I have no idea how long a system like the above should normally last. However; I found out last week that the one installed at my home was good for about twelve years. Apparently, some “shortcuts” were taken when my home was constructed. The lift pump is in a little enclosure beside the tank and is called a “lift station”. My station was constructed of some old culvert or steel drum. It rusted thru and collapsed. It had been acting up for a quite a while but eventually stopped working at all.
I now have a brand new lift station, pump, and risers (to ease access to the tank and station covers). No, it was not free. No, the federal government did not call ask if they could pay for it with some ARRA money (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Nope, I paid for it all by my lonesome – just north of two grand… Ouch! I can think of so many things I would have liked to spend that money on. My own poo is not one of them… sigh…
The moral to my tale is to TRY to get things done correctly the first time. I purchased this home and short of digging up this system for inspection prior to purchase, there was no way to know. If it had been done correctly, I suspect it would have worked correctly for many more years.
Leave a Reply