Wells, Sump Pumps and Septic Sewage Systems - water on top of septic tank

About four years ago my septic tank backed up into the house. I had it pumped and new field lines installed. No problems with water on top of the tank (its very close to the house, one of the bathrooms runs straight to it). In July i noticed water coming out and dribbling across the yard. Time to have it pumped, and I did. Two to three days later noticed water building on top of the septic tank. Called the septic people again and explained it. They came down, partially pumped the tank and used high pressure water to clean the opening (?) to the filed lines. Another 2 or 3 days go by and water is still puddling ontop of the tank..so much that it stays saturated. Havent called the septic people yet because I would like other opinions of why this is happening. Do the lids to the tank have to be sealed? Do they need to fit tight in their openings, could one of these be it? Any help would be appreciated.

Is this house built on low land? And what do the septic tank people say?

I had a similar problem with a rental house. The pipe connecting the septic tank to the drain field had been crushed when the ground settled. It was only discovered after excavating the area. It was pretty cheap & easy to fix once we dug up the area.

Hopefully your problem is so simple.

Thank you for giving your opinions. I get a few of the neigbors run off when it rains....always have....but when the field lines were put in i had not one problem with water coming up from the tank....just this july when the water backed up ontop of the tank and since it had been about 4 yrs since it was puumped, I thought that was the problem. Early August I had it pumped. Couple days later water was appearing. We called and told the septic company and they said they'd come and half pump it and blast the opening or whatever it's called. They said it had somekind of build up after they had finished it. Couple days later more water. I haven't called them again because i'm not sure if they did it right the first time. We had to dig up the covers ourselves and there was barely 5 inches of dirt covering the tank. I noticed that there were two openings. The first time we uncovered a rather small one and it didn't seem to fit in securely once it was put back on..just a cement angular block. I had to go in debt to do the field lines and its a hardship having to keep having the septic company come out. I dont know what to do....could something still be clogged in it? I know I just repeated the original question, i'm sorry . I got on here before I found out I needed new field lines and everyone who helped me was very kind.

Septic tank covers on many concrete tanks are just a concrete plug that sits on top. Nothing fancy. That is why you do not want surface water on top of the tank because it can seep into the tank increasing the load on your drain field.

It is possible for something to have clogged the drain line. The worst thing is if you have poured grease or oil down the drain, or if you cook a lot with grease or oil. Washing grease & oil off dishes can send a lot of oil into the system. It floats on top in the tank and can make it's way out into the drain field where it cloggs and ruins the system.

Unfortunatley if the system is not working and your septic guy tried jetting out the discharge line the next step is to start digging. Cheapest and easiest to fix is if a line has been crushed. If the field has failed you may be in for a pretty heavy expense.

I no longer pour grease down the drain, nor do i put toilet paper or any other type of solids in my drain. I haven't done that since the field lines were replaced (though one of my children might have put cooking oil in the drain without me knowing it).:( When the septic co pumped it they did say it had some grease in it but the way he spoke he had gotten it out. When he flushed (?) it the 2nd time he said he broke something loose that had built up around the opening to the pipe that leads to the field lines. Please tell me it's not the fiel lines again...I'm barely making it by as it is on a fixed income of SS. I had to add 10,000 to my mortage to get the lines done. Where would I be digging and what would I be looking for? I tried putting rid x in the drains to see if that would help, in case the bacterias weren't doing their job, but nothing. I had four new lines put in that were practically the length of my back yard...would or could all of them be ruined or could it still work if just one or two were not working. Should there be more dirt on top of it? Could dirt be in it? I'm grasping for straws....do I need to have it pumped again? It is raining and since the tank is releasing fluids already this must mean rain water is getting into the tank also. Another question....can the field lines themselves be cleaned or just the opening to the field lines? Would that be a solution and is it very costly?

Finger off the panic button.

It doesn't necessarily have to be that the field is jammed up and needs to be replaced. It could be (as Pilot Dane said) that a pipe has moved so it is disconnected or a pipe was crushed by a car or truck driving over it.

You want to start digging around the edges of the tank, where the inlet and outlet pipes are. Usually, the septic companies will dig around for you for not a lot of money.

You write that the water from your neighbors yards runs into yours, so where does it go from your place?
It may well be that the top of your septic is the lowest part of the yard?
And what you need is a simple ditch to take the water away downhill someplace.
As written earlier you do not want extra water getting in the septic, moving it elsewhere is favorite.
You do not mention anything about the drain field?
Presumably that is working OK? No water rising from that?
If the drain field is OK, then there is nothing to worry about. The water on top of the tank is a nuisance, nothing more.

You write that the water from your neighbors yards runs into yours, so where does it go from your place?
It may well be that the top of your septic is the lowest part of the yard?
And what you need is a simple ditch to take the water away downhill someplace.
As written earlier you do not want extra water getting in the septic, moving it elsewhere is favorite.
You do not mention anything about the drain field?
Presumably that is working OK? No water rising from that?
If the drain field is OK, then there is nothing to worry about. The water on top of the tank is a nuisance, nothing more.

The water from my neighbors run through my back yard to the side fence then hits a dip where it then runs alongside the side yard into the ditch(?) that carries the water down the road. No water has ever stood on top of the yard where the pipes are, just on top of the tank.

The water from my neighbors run through my back yard to the side fence then hits a dip where it then runs alongside the side yard into the ditch(?) that carries the water down the road. No water has ever stood on top of the yard where the pipes are, just on top of the tank.

It has been raining off and on for a few days now and so i went to check the ground. The top of the tank looks like blackish-gray congealed mud. I know where the end of the tank is that has the pipe leading from it so i stepped it off. The ground is slushy only from the end of the tank for about five feet out. The rest of the ground is normal for the amount of rain we've had. I also noticed that there is a hole where the water has been bubbling up...it is at the end of the tank, about where the pipe that leads out would be.

I would guess that the outlet pipe from the septic has not been fitted correctly, its loose and some liquid from the septic is getting out from the loose joint.

Just dig down the side of the septic and find the leaking joint, and see what's happening.
The outlet is near the surface, not very far down.

When you have the joint in full view, ask someone to flush one of the toilets to see what happens - it will take a short while for the water to travel down the pipe to the septic and cause a wave surge across the septic before you see the liquid coming out of the joint.
Each flush is about two gallons, I don't expect you will see very much coming out of the joint.

If you have a hole where you can see the liquid bubbling up that is a good place to start digging. I know it is muddy and nasty but if you want to do-it-yourself and possibly save some money you will have to start digging. It's really the only way to know what is going on.

If you have a hole where you can see the liquid bubbling up that is a good place to start digging. I know it is muddy and nasty but if you want to do-it-yourself and possibly save some money you will have to start digging. It's really the only way to know what is going on.

My son dug up where the water was bubbling up..yes..nasty.
We found the pipe that the tank water runs out through. We ran a snake through it, tried a forceful stream of water, my son even stuck his arm into it. The water still stayed in the tank. Someone suggested finding the lowest spot in the yard where the lines might be and dig. We did that. He had dug a few inches down and bits of the "popcorn" stuff and water started flowing into the hole from the side of the hole. It took about 10 mins or longer but the water in the tank went down about an inch. It got dark about that time so we had to stop, put the cover back on the tank and filled in the hole. Does this new information give any new insight on my problem? The water in the hole he dug was the line closest to the tank.

I think you need to increase your sons allowance. :)

I think you need to increase your sons allowance. :)

Yes, I agree with you..but he's in his 30's and he is trying to save me a costly procedure. Do you have an opinion on what or where the problem is? Could it be something with the distribution box? Where would I try to locate it? Thank you, and thanks to my son..love him.

Now this may be bad news, or not?
When your drain field was newly installed, you say only four years ago - they may not have done a good job.
A drain field should be installed at an angle of one in two hundred and it should have been designed to fit your home, the number of people living there and the amount of water the average family of your size will use.
Have you bought a new washing machine?
Are you suddenly doing lots more washing?
Do you have extra people living with you?
Have you had lots more rain recently?
Has any work been done locally that may have altered the height of the water table?
All of these things either separately or together may be over loading your drain field.
For the moment cut down on the amount of water you are dumping every day.
Think about my questions, talk to your family, see if they are using more water, more frequent baths etc.
If water use is not the problem, then further study of the drain pipes is required.

I do not have good news from what you have been saying. You dug up the output line from the septic tank, the line that connects the tank to the drain field. You did not find a clog or problem and the water level stayed high in the septic tank.

Then you dug in the drain field near the low point. Water and peanuts started bubbling up and into the hole and the water level in the septic tank went down. This leads me to think that the pipe from the septic tank and distribution box to the drain field is clear and working, confirmed when you dug a hole in the drain field and the level in the tank dropped. Basically this all points to the drain field not working for some reason.

1. The drain field can only handle so much liquid. Extra load like more pople in the house can overload the system with extra showers, laundry, dish washing... Systems long ago where not designed to handle modern water use. I used to live in a house that started as a one bedroom lake cottage meant for weekend use and had been remodeled to become a 2 bedroom 2 bath for year round living, all on the old small septic system.

2. Pouring grease or oil down the drain in the house can quickly kill a septic system. Probably not an issue since you have had the system pumped. Grease is usually easy for the septic tank guys to spot.

3. If you have had an extra wet season it could just be that the ground is saturated. If rains have kept your ground water logged then there is no place for the water from your septic system to go and the problem might go away when the ground dries out.

4. Your drain field could be bad. Over use, poor soil conditions or a bad installation could mean the system is shot. Water flows in from the septic tank but the drain field cannot handle the load so water backs up into the septic tank and takes the path of least resistance, the surface.

Now this may be bad news, or not?
When your drain field was newly installed, you say only four years ago - they may not have done a good job.
A drain field should be installed at an angle of one in two hundred and it should have been designed to fit your home, the number of people living there and the amount of water the average family of your size will use.
Have you bought a new washing machine?
Are you suddenly doing lots more washing?
Do you have extra people living with you?
Have you had lots more rain recently?
Has any work been done locally that may have altered the height of the water table?
All of these things either separately or together may be over loading your drain field.
For the moment cut down on the amount of water you are dumping every day.
Think about my questions, talk to your family, see if they are using more water, more frequent baths etc.
If water use is not the problem, then further study of the drain pipes is required.

No one is using anything other than the usual. It all started at the end of july..i had it pumped, water seeped to the top...had it half pumped and then pressurized air blown through the pipe leading out..the septic man said there was a colg of grease but he blasted (?) it. Few days later more water on top of the tank. Dug up and exposed the outlet pipe..looked fine...snaked it a little ourselves, no water went down. Dug a hole bout 20 ft from the tank at the lowest point and hit water with styrofoam bits. Line closest to tank. What does the water coming into the hole mean? We couldn't dig deeper to find the line itself due to nightfall.

It reads like your water table is high, due to lots of rain and your neighbors water running into your yard.
Do you live in the bottom of a valley or basin?
If you can, take a look at the ditch your surface water drains into, is it higher than usual? (even overflowing?)
The fact that you hit water before reaching the drain field says high water table. Underground water should be four foot six inches lower than the ground level.
There is nothing you can do to mitigate this, other than digging a ditch to move the water elsewhere onto lower ground.

The water that filled the hole you dug probably came from the septic drain field. I am betting that was not ground water you saw. It was effluent from your septic drain field. The "smoking gun" is that you saw styrofoam peanuts floating into the hole you dug. It tells me that you dug deep enough to hit your drain field and it indicates that you have an EZ Lay style drainage system.

A traditional drain field uses tons of gravel around your drain piping wich requires a dump truck and front end loader to install. Your system sounds like EZ Lay which uses foam packing peanuts instead of gravel/crushed stone. This system is much lighter and easier to install. EZ Lay has weaknesses.

It must be protected by a layer of landscape fabric on the top side to prevent dirt from clogging the system. If not installed properly the drain field will clogg with dirt. Some installers use paper which easily tears and breaks down over time allowing dirt to clogg the system. You should have hit the landscape fabric when you dug your hole.

EZ Lay systems are also easily damaged by driving over the field with something heavy. Often they are crushed when the installer is covering the field with dirt using a backhoe or tractor. The system can also be crushed by driving a car across the lawn in the system is shallowly burried.

Forgot to mention: A section of EZ Lay is typically three feet wide and made of three tubes each about one foot in diameter. The center tube has a black plastic drain pipe like a normal system wrapped in packing peanuts. On either side is another tube full of packing peanuts held together by a thin netting. When you dug it is very likely you hit one of the side tubes.