Septic or Water Line? Telling Them Apart When the Yard Is Wet

Same yard, two systems

Most homes in Olalla, Seabeck, Lofall, Hansville, much of Bainbridge, and acreage parcels across the county have both a buried water service line and a septic system, and a wet spot in the yard could be either. Getting it right matters because they're fixed by different trades with different equipment, and because a water leak that saturates a drainfield can produce septic symptoms that go away once the water line is repaired.

The quick tells

• Odor: septic effluent smells; water line leaks are clean water and don't.
• Location: septic problems surface over the tank, the distribution box or the drainfield. Water line leaks surface along or downhill of the line's route from the meter or well to the house.
• The meter or the pump: a water line leak moves the meter with the house isolated, or cycles a well pump with nothing running. A septic problem does neither.
• Timing: septic surfacing often follows heavy household water use or heavy rain. A water line leak is constant.
• Grass: both make grass green, but a water line leak makes a stripe along the pipe; a drainfield failure makes lush growth over the field.

When it's both

A leaking water line near a drainfield adds hundreds of gallons a day to ground that's supposed to be absorbing effluent. The drainfield saturates, effluent surfaces, and the septic contractor is called for a problem that's really a water leak. If a drainfield is failing with no change in household use, the meter test is worth five minutes before anyone condemns the field.

Who does what

We locate and repair the water service line, and we locate it relative to the septic components so the excavation doesn't damage a tank or a lateral. Septic tanks, pumps, distribution boxes and drainfields are the work of a licensed septic contractor, and we're glad to coordinate.