Jeff Lawrence on mon 25 aug 97
Roger Bourland was asking:
> If I have a septic tank, can
>I run clay in any form into it without eventually clogging up the system?
>
Hi Roger,
At my last place, I didn't want to risk my landlord's wrath by clogging his
tank, so I dug a leach field with that 4" perforated pipe. It lasted 9
months before it clogged and oozed into the drive.
So I hired a backhoe to come dig a hole for a bigger leach field -- a couple
of those plastic tentiform sections. In the course of the digging through
all our native brown clay soil, the driver clawed up the old pipe. It was
packed solid with my gray clay. The man patiently explained how he saw that
sort of thing all the time -- people place their leach pipe on a seam of
clay and the clay just climbs right into the pipes and clogs them up. Be
forewarned. It might even come at you from the sink drain, like an earthy
version of those water tentacles from "The Deep."
I'm not sure even those puissant suck trucks can get clay sludge out of a
septic tank. They charge $150-200 around here depending on their mood. If it
works and you have to do it every couple years, might not be so bad.
Rhodes waxed eloquent on the smell of clay, how it "speaks of the bowels of
the earth," etc. If the truck vacuum couldn't get it out, you'd have a
large concrete box full of very aromatic clay. I suspect you would be moved
to even more powerful prose.
prosaically yours,
Jeff
Jeff Lawrence
Sun Dagger Design
ph/fax 505-753-5913
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