During times of heavy summer rain, it’s crucial to watch for signs of drain field stress like pools of water or spongy green grass. Make sure your house gutters and surrounding pavement runoff are not sending water into the drain field area.
Heavy rain can cause water from the drain field to travel backward, moving through your pipes and into the toilets and drains inside your house. Flooded drain fields can also send untreated sewage into groundwater and local bodies of water, which can lead to environmental contamination.
Reduce water consumption during these times. Combine laundry loads, run only full dishwasher loads and, take shorter showers to reduce the amount of water used.
Drought When long, dry periods are followed by heavy rains, underground pipes and connections may be damaged. The contraction of the dried-out soil caused by drought followed by the expansion because of rainfall subjects water pipes and drain lines to shift potentially causing damage.
Broken Drainpipes A broken drainpipe will still allow water to slowly seep away. A cracked pipe or failed connection in one of these non-pressurized lines may go undetected for months. The leakage in the drain line will slowly continue to erode the soil around the leak. The excess water accumulating may attract tree roots, which can grow into drain lines and clog the system.