Mulching an area..

[radartech2]

Hey folks...

So I live in the mountains of Western NC...
and in the wrong of my house below a bank is an area I cleared to help minimize wildlife and poison...
It also has my septic field...
I’m at the top of the mountain so this is downhill from the house...

Well— I’m considering throwing 2-3 inches of mulch on that area...
or just running over it with the ATV and an aerator and dropping grass seed...

What kind of problems would the mulch cause?

Some internet pages say mulch will kill a septic field.... is this true?

 

[3Ts]

There is a maximum depth for the pipes in a septic field. It's been a few years so don't hold me to this, but I think it's something like 3 feet deep. The reason seems to be that any deeper and the bacteria won't survive to do what ever they do. There is also a maximum slope that the septic field can be put on - again, it's been awhile, but I think it was 30% (not degrees).

 

[MossRoad]

I think the depth of the drain field is determined by the depth of the septic tank in a gravity system, and that is determined by the lowest point in the pipe leaving the house. Septic tanks aren't typically buried that deep because they need to be serviced once in a while, and, they don't freeze all that easy. So climate, water table, soil types, slope of the land, etc... all come into play. For example, our sewage pipe leaves our house at a depth of 4'. Our septic tanks are buried about 4'6" down from the surface. That drains to a drywell at about 5' deep. And that drains to a leach field about 6' deep. The leach field was added by the original owner after the drywell eventually plugged up in the 60's. That system had been there since the 20's. Maybe codes have changed since then.

 

[3Ts]

Check your state requirements. They differ for many reasons including how deep the ground freezes in the winter, and where the water table is. When we were in Florida, the top of the septic tank was only allowed to be 6 inches down. In Texas, it's deeper, but not as deep as Indiana.

As for mulch, I don't think it will make any difference to the leach field other than the depth the mulch the deeper the pipes are.

 

[boomer1025]

Plant grass, it will help soak up some of the water in the drain field in the wet part of the year.

 

[radartech2]

The top of our tank is maybe 5 inches underground... the lines come out and go down an bank that is 4-6 feet lower than the top of the tank... and they are 20” underground...

From the basement floor to the lowest point in the drain lines the surface elevation drops at least 8-9 FEET..

Frost level here is 18”..
I know this well as I dug up part of the line to well to check for a leak....

The guy that installed the septic has been doing that work here for at least 30 years... and helped his dad do it for maybe 15-20 before that.. he has run heavy equipment since he was maybe 13-14 years old...

Grass... yea. It would help with some erosion.... just getting it done will be a problem...

Thanks for the info..

J