How to Locate a Leach Bed

A septic system is relatively easy to maintain, as long as it's pumped on schedule.

The septic tank is considered the heart of a common natural style of waste disposal system for properties located outside of municipal waste systems. When it's properly maintained, a septic tank will function for years as its supposed to, properly gathering, storing and slowly processing waste. Other pieces of a septic system, such as the leach field or leach bed, also require attention from time to time. When a problem occurs, such as a back-up, one important step is often to locate the field.

Things You'll Need

• Septic system (tank, leach field, biomat)
• Small pole for probing

Instructions

Learn Your Terms

1. According to the National Environmental Services Center, a program at the University of West Virginia, the leach bed can go by several names, including leach field, drain field or disposal field. In the septic process, solid and liquid waste head into the tank. As the contained matter breaks down into a liquid called effluent over time, it flows from the tank to the leach bed, a nearby series of trenches filled with gravel or tile-like material, where it drains and filters into the earth.

2. Natural Home Solutions, a site dedicated to sustainable living, suggests the first step in finding your leach field should be to contact your local building or engineering department to find out what kind of septic work you can arrange or perform on your own or what you may need a permit for, such as larger repairs, renovations or additions. Most municipalities have their own sets of regulations for septic tank owners based on the type of local soil, climate, water table and more.

3. A visit to City Hall, or at least the nearest building department or public health office, may save you time and effort. Some municipalities, such as Thurston County in Washington state, can provide the plans or a rendering of where your property's septic systems is located or arranged, provided you or a previous owner shared this information when it was installed. In this county, all you would need to receive this info is your property's parcel number, provided by the county assessor.

4. Thurston County's Public Health and Social Services site suggests stopping watering the area where you think your leach bed is, then looking for green stripes or depressions, low, white-capped pipes; or simply looking or probing about 10 feet from where the sewer pipe exits the foundation, which is where the septic system should be located if done to local code. Eliminate areas such large groups of trees or higher elevations than the home since no system should be properly placed there.

Tips & Warnings

• Though property owners should keep track of where the pieces of their septic system are and schedule routine maintenance and pumping of their tank, much of the hands-on work should be done by professionals. Tim Carter, a national syndicated home columnist and author of "Ask the Builder," warns that septic systems can contain dangerous, even lethal, levels of gasses, so use caution when probing the ground.

References

• Natural Home Solutions: Septic Tanks
• Thurston County Public Health and Social Services: How to locate drain fields
• Ask the Builder: Septic Tank Dos and Donts
• National Environmental Services Center: Septic Tanks

Resources

• National Environmental Services Center