Some effluent emerged through the ground after fixing a stuck float and pumping 1000 gallon pump tank after a week of rain - problem?

[JEG in Raleigh]

I have a few questions about a situation I had today with my septic system and I have to give some background first.

I have a 6-year-old house we built with a 1000-gallon septic tank and 1000-gallon pump tank. The guy who owned the property before we bought it lived alone in a 1 BR apartment over a 3-car garage that is 200' away from the house we built. The septic field itself is about 20 years old and served the apartment over the garage. It's and EZ-Flow system and was designed for a 4 BR house because the previous owner was intending to build a larger house at some point. The apartment had only been occupied sporadically by the previous owner over the 15 years prior to our building the new house. The county health department said the existing field could be used for the new house, which is 3 BR. So our new 3 BR house + the apartment over the garage = the 4BR capacity of the septic field. We only use the apartment over the garage as a guest house when family comes to visit so it is very rarely used, and there are only 2 of us in the new house, so the septic field is not being used to its capacity. I have the septic tank pumped every 2 years and I clean the filter every 6 months. But, the new house's elevation is about 20' below that of the septic field so we have to pump up to the septic field. The pump has had to be replaced once and the current pump is about 2 years old. In the last 6 months, the pump alarm has gone off 2 times. The first time, the floats had slid down out of position on the support tube to which they were attached. The second time the float switch that turned on the alarm got tangled and did not flip upside down and the pump did not turn on. Today, I went out to clean the filter and when I opened the riser on the septic tank, it was filled almost to the top of the riser and the pump tank was completely filled to the top. The pump had not pumped and the pump alarm had not gone off. The last time the floats screwed up, the septic service tech when through the whole process of diagnosing the problem with me, and I wrote myself an instruction manual. So, today I was able to override the float switches and turn on the pump and then I jiggled the floats and tested to make sure they were working, and I got the alarm working again. So, I ran the pump until it finally got the pump tank to the level at which the "on/off" float switch turned the pump off as it should have and the level in the septic tank also was reduced to the point of the filter and overflow that goes into the pump tank.

In the last week, we have had a lot of rain....about 3 inches and the ground is completely saturated. Our septic field borders a slight slope through some trees and that slope ends in a small embankment about 30' away from the edge of the septic field. At the bottom of the bank, there is a flat area about 6' wide and 50' long, and this flat area has a very gentle pitch to it along its length. This area is between the septic field and the house. The elevation of this flat area is about 6' below that of the septic field. I probably pumped around 800 gallons of effluent today in the process of fixing my stuck-float switch problem. As I was getting down to the last couple hundred gallons, liquid started emerging at the bottom of the small embankment, enough to the point that there was a small stream of it running down the 6' wide, 50' long flat area. I have a bad sense of smell and couldn't smell anything, but the sun is out today and there's no other source of liquid that could be causing this other than runoff from the septic field. The liquid was not pooling at the septic field or on top of the ground. It was coming out of the middle of the embankment. It did stop after the pump shut off.

QUESTION #1 - Based on the positions of the floats in the pump tank, I'm guessing that when the pump is actuated normally, it pumps about 200 gallons into the field.....not the 800 or so that I pumped today. With the ground already being saturated, would the emergence of effluent to daylight be expected when distributing 800 gallons to a septic field with the rain-saturated ground in a short time period, or do I have a problem cooking with my septic field? I've never had any effluent emerge before. The grass (really weeds) on top of the entire septic field were uniform in their greenness this summer....no bands of green.

QUESTION #2 - I'm guessing the liquid traveled underground at a depth of 20" or so for the 30' between the septic field and the embankment where the liquid showed up. Is that what happened or did the effluent entering the septic field today push other water in the saturated ground to where it emerged to daylight? As I said, I couldn't smell anything and the liquid was clear, but I also have a bad sense of smell.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[LaChapel]

Probably just being overloaded for that day. 110 gallons per bedroom per day is standard. As for the floats if it was done the “Correct” way there should be a horizontal support bar that the floats hang from. This helps them not tangle up around the pump with the flow of the water. Hopfully this helped you feel free to ask any more questions maybe I can help.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Probably just being overloaded for that day. 110 gallons per bedroom per day is standard. As for the floats if it was done the “Correct” way there should be a horizontal support bar that the floats hang from. This helps them not tangle up around the pump with the flow of the water. Hopfully this helped you feel free to ask any more questions maybe I can help.

We like to see less than 5,000 gallons a month ran through a 3 bedroom in my area. 1200 gal tank.

 

[JEG in Raleigh]

Probably just being overloaded for that day. 110 gallons per bedroom per day is standard. As for the floats if it was done the “Correct” way there should be a horizontal support bar that the floats hang from. This helps them not tangle up around the pump with the flow of the water. Hopfully this helped you feel free to ask any more questions maybe I can help.

Thanks very much for replying to my questions. I was hoping that it was a case of it just being temporarily overloaded.

As far as how the floats were set, I've attached a generic diagram with the manner in which the floats are positioned. But note that the floats are not attached to the pipe coming out of the pump. There is a separate vertical PVC pipe with a base that rests on the bottom of the pump tank. That pipe is not plumbed into anything and acts only as a mounting fixture for the 3 floats. The last time my septic servicer came out to fix the out-of-position floats, I took photos of the process of resetting and testing the float switches. The attached photo shows the float-support fixture out of the tank as the technician re-positions the float switches and then manually inverts each float to test the functioning of each switch inside each float. There really isn't a way to attach the floats to any horizontal component as there is not enough room to do so. You can see the size of the hatch opening in the photo and the amount of room that the valve in the photo is taking up. So, I think the vertical orientation of the float support fixture is what has to be used. In the photos, the 3 floats are in sequential alignment over each other. Maybe I should position each float 120 degrees around the support pipe away from each other to further reduce the chance of them getting hung up or tangled. What do you think?

 

[Twowaxhack]

That’s called a float tree.

The weak point to that setup you have is the plastic wire straps and it’s more difficult to adjust the floats on initial set up or a float switch change with a different on/off angle.

I prefer a stainless bracket mounted to the tank and clip on wire restraints that lock into the bracket. The floats I use have a lead weight attached to the wire and the float only toggles 4-6”. They don’t tangle.

But a float tree works too and I’ve set them up like you have. I’d just buy better attachments that’s are specifically designed to attach float wires to pipe.

Here’s the bracket I like.
https://www.mdius.com/products/float-tree-3-hole

 

[JEG in Raleigh]

That’s called a float tree.

The weak point to that setup you have is the plastic wire straps and it’s more difficult to adjust the floats on initial set up or a float switch change with a different on/off angle.

I prefer a stainless bracket mounted to the tank and clip on wire restraints that lock into the bracket. The floats I use have a lead weight attached to the wire and the float only toggles 4-6”. They don’t tangle.

But a float tree works too and I’ve set them up like you have. I’d just buy better attachments that’s are specifically designed to attach float wires to pipe.

Here’s the bracket I like.
https://www.mdius.com/products/float-tree-3-hole

Thank you. I looked up some pictures online of the type of bracket you linked for me. Please see the attached screenshot. Is this the type of setup you are talking about? It seems that with the lengths of the cord and as close as they are to each other, the floats would be prone to get tangled up.

If I did continue to use a float tree, it seems that in addition to having a better method of securing the wires to the tree, there should be some sort of horizontal projection on each attachment bracket to hold the wire a few inches away from the float tree pipe, thereby allowing the floats to turn completely upside down without bumping into interference from the vertical float tree pipe. Am I right about that? With my current setup it seems that the floats could never standoff completely from the vertical pipe of the tree and therefore, they would not be able to invert completely.

 

[Twowaxhack]

With the bracket and weighted floats it operates without tangles. With the weights they don’t tangle.

If you keep the float tree pipe method you’re using now all you need are the float wire to pipe mounting bracket. It’s holds the floats fine. That’s what it’s designed to do and it accomplishes the mission.

Wire straps work too but I’ve had those break before. Not good.