My Cesspool fills up instantly

[ΔΗΜΗΤΡΗΣ ΠΟΥΛΑΚΗΣ]

The house I live was built in 2010 and used minimally , until 2012 that we , 2 people moved in permanently. The cesspool is 3.5m depth , the diameter of the cement rings is 2.5m and the bottom of the cesspool is soil. The height of the drains from the house, meets the cesspool at a depth of about 1m. . Therefore, the "useful volume" of the cesspool is (25 * 3,14 * 2,5 =) 19,63m3 . On May 12 , I emptied the cesspool for first time from 2010 .. The measurements of the level of the cesspool are shown bellow and drives me crazy .
Cesspool level
May 12 Empty 0cm
May 13 1 day after emptying 35 cm
May 19 6 days after the previous measurement 95 cm
May 21 2 days after the previous measurement 1.10 meters
May 25 4 days after the previous measurement 1.28 meters
Jun 1 7 days after the previous measurement 2.22 meters
Jun 3 2 days after the previous measurement 2.41 meters
In a few days I have to re-empty the cesspool. There are no leaks from the plumping . How does it fill ? If there are underground waters , how it happens , that did not fill up for 8 years and suddenly it changed behavior? I intend to dig a new cesspool , but if the level - in the old one - continues to rise, at some point it will overflow into the garden . Thinking either to make new drains from the house towards the new cesspit , or throw the overflow of the old cesspool into the new one. In the second case, I am afraid that the problem will pass from the old to the new one. Any advices , or ideas are very welcome . Thanks .

 

[havasu]

Have you had any rain recently? I know many systems improperly route water run off into the system.

 

[jwwing]

A cesspool as I recognize it is a single hole dug in permeable dirt that will percolate water out the bottom as well as evaporate out the top. Normally you would not use a cesspool on a house - you would use a septic system which generally consists of a couple of solid tanks (concrete or plastic) with a drain field following it. The first tank receives the effluent, processes it and delivers almost clean water to the second tank where the process is completed. Then the more or less 'pure' water is delivered to a cesspool-like drain field for evaporation into the air and percolation into the ground. These drain fields are being replaced because they fail when the ground begins to clog up and will no longer perc the water down - so it only goes up (evaporates) where most of it goes anyway. When overloaded, the drain field overflows similar to a cesspool.

So a cesspool would not be sufficient for a whole house unless used very little or unless the soil percolates very well as for example in the case of sand or sandy loam. The reason that you would see the change as you described is that the area below the cesspool becomes in effect 'water logged' - it no longer allows the moisture to go down because the rotted material is forming a barrier - so the only escape is evaporation and the cesspool does not evaporate very well.

I do not know where you live, but if cesspools are allowed, they will not take as much output as you are showing in the data supplied. It would appear that you are overloading it. To tell how much, you would have to somehow meter the amount of liquids that you dumped into it and calculate the amount of fluids that it should be able to move through it.

 

[jwwing]

By digging a second cesspool, you will increase the volume amount that the system can handle, but the problem will still remain unless you can make a septic system out of it. The bottom of the cesspool is sealed by the rotting stuff and causes the cesspool to not percolate. The case of the septic system, that remaining gunk that seals the cesspool, falls to the bottom and needs to be removed every 5 years or so but doesn't affect the operation of the septic like it does a cesspool.

 

[jwwing]

The house I live was built in 2010 and used minimally , until 2012 that we , 2 people moved in permanently. The cesspool is 3.5m depth , the diameter of the cement rings is 2.5m and the bottom of the cesspool is soil. The height of the drains from the house, meets the cesspool at a depth of about 1m. . Therefore, the "useful volume" of the cesspool is (25 * 3,14 * 2,5 =) 19,63m3 . On May 12 , I emptied the cesspool for first time from 2010 .. The measurements of the level of the cesspool are shown bellow and drives me crazy .
Cesspool level
May 12 Empty 0cm
May 13 1 day after emptying 35 cm
May 19 6 days after the previous measurement 95 cm
May 21 2 days after the previous measurement 1.10 meters
May 25 4 days after the previous measurement 1.28 meters
Jun 1 7 days after the previous measurement 2.22 meters
Jun 3 2 days after the previous measurement 2.41 meters

19,63 m3 is about 5178 gallons (for me)
2.5 m is 8.2 ft (for me)
0.35 m is 1.15 ft (for me)
0.1 m is about 3.14*2.5*0.01 =0.0785 cu m per cm of depth
35 cm = 2.75 cu m per day on day one or 726.5 gal/day
60 cm = 4.71 cu m for 6 days or 0.68 cu m per day or 179.6 gal/day
15 cm = 1.18 cu m for 2 days or 0.59 cu m per day or 155.9 gal/day
18 cm = 1.41 cu m for 4 days or 0.35 cu m per day or 92.5 gal/day
94 cm = 7.38 cu m for 7 days or 0.154 cu m per day or 40.7 gal/day
19 cm = 1.5 cu m for 2 days or 0.75 cu m per day or 198.1 gal /day

These look good if I calculated correctly - you have quite a range, but not out of reason - just a little high for two people.

I have forgotten the flow rates expected in a US house - I'll try to look it up.