Attached is a copy of the certification for my septic system received last week. You will note that the report states that the hydraulic load test demonstrated our system absorbed 400 gallons of water in 24 hours, which is the state requirement here for a 3-bedroom home for new septic systems.
I do believe that your Aero-stream unit was a major factor in our system being able to pass the test.
The past spring we had our system inspected due to the fact that we were planning to sell our home. The inspector failed to pass the system because the field was holding water. His test hole revealed that water was standing about 2 to 3 inches above the top of the bed.
There had been heavy rains, thus that may have attributed to the level being a little higher, but about 3 weeks later after it had not rained for a week and a half the level was still at the top of the drainage bed. Approximately a month ago (3 months after the initial inspection) I found the level was still about 2†below the top of the bed, or about 10†high in a 12†deep bed.
At this point I did 2 things: (1) I installed your Aero-stream unit, the larger model, oversized for a small 3-bedroom house with only 2 occupants, but deliberately chosen in hope that it would produce quicker results. (2) I had the septic tank and a small grease trap pumped out.
When the tank was pumped it was discovered that the level in the tank was higher than it should be, indicative that we still had a problem. In fact the level in the grease trap was at the top of the trap near the lid significantly above the outlet baffle. This indicated that water had backed up from the septic tank into the grease trap. As the tank was being pumped first immediately the level in the grease trap went down.
Nine days later I had an appointment with a contractor to have a perk test done to start the approval process to install a brand new drainage bed. (During these 9 days your unit was running of course.) The contractor also dug a hole with the backhoe at the far end of the drainage bed. He wanted to see if there was a buildup of biomat. He did find biomat in the bottom portion of the one foot deep drainage bed. He also discovered that the pipes had a lot of sludge in them. However, surprisingly he found that the water level was only about 3†to 4†deep in the drainage bed in the 12†drainage bed. This surprised him. He expressed the opinion that the pipes must be plugged up and that water was having difficulty getting to this back end of the bed. He thus recommended that we have the pipes cleaned with a pressure wash jet cleaning system.
The various next day we had a contractor come out and jet clean the system. He had to dig an additional hole at the front end of the drainage field. He cleaned the pipes which had quite a bit of sludge in them, especially at the rear end of the field, but he also discovered that the water level at the front end of the field was only 3-1/2†deep in the 12†deep field. This surprised him. In fact he said that I should have the original inspector come back and perhaps he would now approve the system. I explained that I had installed your aero-stream unit less than 2 weeks earlier, and I believed that may have been the reason for the sudden improvement in my drainage field.
The next day I learned that the contractor who jet-cleaned my laterals was also an inspector and could certify my system. I called him and asked if he would do so. He said he had recommended the original inspector since his report would conflict with the original report. However, after talking to his boss and the original inspector and the environmental engineer who had dug the holes for the perk test he said he would approve it if it would pass a hydraulic load test and demonstrate that it could pass 400 gallons in one day.
The first day he ran 500 gallons into the field. This only brought the level up to about half full. The next day he could only get 210 gallons in before he was up to the same level. He explained the biomat in the field was causing poor drainage, but that if he raised the water level in the field higher it would drain better out the sides of the field, because there wasn’t as much biomat there. He then added 1000 gallons which brought the level up to about 10â€, 2†below the top of the field.
The third day he checked it by running 400 more gallons into the field. He found the level had dropped enough that it took all 400 gallons to bring it back up to the previous day’s level. As a result he passed the system and gave the attached certification.
However, as this shows we still have biomat in the bottom of the field, and understandably so. Nine days running the unit would obviously not be enough to rid the system of all its biomat. However, it seems apparent that even this short period of time made a big difference. The system can now handle 400 gallons a day, whereas before it was backing up when our daily usage was only about 125 gallons a day.
Thank you,
RB
Conshohocken, PA
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