Septic System - Improving drain field

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I bought an old farmhouse with an appx. 1500 gal tank. Soon after moving in we had wet ground and a back up into poorly thought out basement floor drain that tapped into sewer line going out of house. Long story but it is fixed and working well. What I am wondering is how to improve the drainage/seepage at the end of the line? I heard of guys trenching but how about this: Can you dig a trench 10 - 20ft(?) long and fill up half way or so with sand(gravel(?)) and dirt on top to enhance the return of the water? The area at the pipe's end is only 50 ft nutil a fence line/driveway so I want the water to go down faster and not spread out.

-- Wannabe Homesteader (pbray@tds.net), February 10, 2001

Answers

Go through the threads under the Waste Disposal/Septic category in the archives. You may find what you want to do and what the state and/or county will let you do are different. You seem to be concentrating on output, perhaps also consider reducing input through things like a gray-water system at least for the washing machine, disconnecting a garbage disposal and not putting anything in the septic system which hasn't been run through the a body first, including toilet paper. I've stop doing so.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 12, 2001.

-- (stinky@pot.com), June 24, 2001