Waste Treatment System Filling With Water!!

N

NickyK

Registered User
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236
Hi,

Every time we have heavy rain for a prolonged period (last 24 hours) my waste treatment system seems to fill with water. It was installed 3 years ago and this has always happened. It has caused damage before with switches etc having to be replaced.

There are 2 chambers and both fill up until almost full. We then get a high water alarm or I manually overide the system to pump the clear water out. For example no clear water was pumped all week but yesterday I manually switched it to pump out at 6am and 8pm. I pumped it out at 6am this morning and when I came home today I had to pump it out twice. When you set it to manually pump it goes for 15 mins so it's a lot ot water. If its not raining it is days between pumping and I never have to touch anything.

Water must be getting in somewhere during the heavy rain but where and why would both chambers fill up?

Any ideas??????

Thanks,

Nicky
 
I don't understand the system you have, but in the septic tank system, only waste water from the house should flow into the tank. Storm water, from gutters goes to a separate soak away.
 
I've checked to see if the drains were running into the waste treatment system but they don't seem to be!! Any other ideas...
 
could ground water be feeding into it? I'll wager you have storm water going into it though. Best way to check is open the man hole cover on the waste treatment unit and have some one pore water down the gully traps.
If that is the problem might be worth putting in an extra sludge pump with a float switch set at the higher level...
 
Thanks for the replies.

It has been raining heavily now since yesterday. I checked the WWTS this morning and its full again. I checked the pipe going from house to WWTS and it was dry so nothing from drains accidently flowing in.

I opened all the manholes and it appears that there are several constant small streams of water flowing into the first chamber. They are not coming from the manhole itself but from below that. It looks like there is the initial concrete chamber and then two square concrete castings that bring up the level to the manhole. It looks like water is getting in from below and not the manhole cover. The ground area around here is pretty soggy at present.

What should I do now? Who is responsible? Surely water should not be getting in here whether the ground is wet or not? I have had the guys who put in the WWTS several times at €220 a pop because of faults occuring due to high water. If its my responsiblity so be it.

What do you think?

Thanks again!!

Nicky
 
Springs in the ground are filling it up , you probably need to put in some land drainage near it to divert the naturally occuring springs away from it in weather like today.
 
Could be your ground workers laid your storm water pipes in the same trench as your foul water going to the WWTS. Cover the traps at the bottom of the down pipes and check again (use a plastic bag and leave them there for an afternoon and check your manhole again or if it isn't raining turn the garden hose down one of them...
If it is as you say and the ground spring is causing the problem you may have to move your WWTS altogether as I'm sure the soak trenches are also full...! Not good, and this will back up the chambers also as the pump has nowhere to pump to...!
 
Between yesterday and today I have manually set the WWTS to pump out water 9 times. There is no sign of water coming back into the system from the percolation area. There was water coming in about a foot below the manhole cover. It is like two concrete castings were put on top of the WWTS to build up the manhole height and water is seeping through these. Should these have been cemented into place? Surely this whole system should be waterproof?
 
No water should be seeping into your system, apart from what ever comes out of your house.
You need to contact the Supplier + Installer. If like me your supplier just delivered the system, but your builder etc installed the system. It could be that the system is incorrectly installed, or damaged during installation
 
I had the very same problem. When the tank was installed they put concrete risers on top of the chambers and did not seal the joins. The whole lot was then covered over with soil so the problem was not visible and only became apparent when it flooded during heavy rain. Cost me 300 quid in repairs as the electrics were damaged.

The solution is simple enough. I did a temporary job by digging a small trench around the manhole covers to take the soil level to below the unsealed join. The guy who came out to repair the system then sealed the inside of the joins with some sort of resin/silicon (he just reached in and slapped it on by hand). When that had dried and I was happy it was properly sealed I just filled in the trench I had previously dug and everything has been fine since.
 
Yep, that's exactly it. Out of interest did you have to pay to get it repaired? I've had them back 3 or 4 times at €220 a pop to fix electrical problems caused by high water!
 
I have the exact same problem. It's a Biotech 6 person tank and from what I can see the rain water from the drains does pass into the tank.

So in heavy rain the tank fills up very quickly and flood where the sockets are, thus blowing the sockets / tripping out the electricity.
 
I dug a trench as suggested and it seems to have done the trick. Called suppliers - blamed builders. Called builders - said they'd call but never showed.... I still overide the system and pump out clear water when it's raining heavily.
 
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