Ross,

My house is at the base of a hill/ridge. We've had over 8 inches of rain the
past month and the ground is soaked. Usually, a couple of days after a big
rain, I notice water seeping out of a walkway where I'd made a hillside cut
and stacked brick for a retaining wall. I'm hoping that my problem is that
the ground is saturated right now and a few days without rain will clear
things up.

Thanks again.

John

> wrote in message
...
> On Sat, 5 Jan 2008 12:17:29 -0600, "JB" > wrote:
>
>>Ross,
>>
>>Thanks for the web site. I found a wealth of information. Looks to me that
>>my problem may lie with my field lines if my theory about the bacteria
>>kill
>>is incorrect. I had my system pumped out a couple of days ago and I'll
>>find
>>out soon enough if the same thing happens again. As I'd said, I have a lot
>>of experience with septic systems and, from the information I read on the
>>web link you shared, I seemed to be doing most things right. I looked back
>>over the past several months to see about anything that had changed and
>>the
>>wine equipment sanitizing/cleansing was all I could come up with. I
>>usually
>>ferment two batches at once so, whenever I have to rack, I clean/sanitize
>>two 9 gallon tanks before and after racking. I originally used a bleach
>>type
>>powder but more recently switched to an "Oxy" type cleaner. I just got to
>>thinking that if this stuff is so good at killing bacteria then is it also
>>wiping out the same in my septic system?
>>
>>Again, thanks for the follow up.
>>
>>John
>
> John,
>
> You're welcome.
> Here's a link to another site that will give you a lot of information
> on sanitizing solutions. I copied this page many years ago and refer
> to it quite often. It is geared toward beer making but pretty well all
> the info applies equally to wine making.
> http://realbeer.com/jjpalmer/cleaning.html
> Take a look at the chlorine info and you'll see the recommended
> concentration is 200 ppm which is achieved with 1 tablespoon household
> bleach in 1 gallon of water. That concentration would not even be
> noticed by a healthy septic system.
> Also, you will note that after sanitizing with chlorine, or any other
> sanitizer for that matter, if you rinse with tap water you are in
> effect nullifying the sanitizing you just did because tap water
> contains bacteria. This is even more likely if, like me, you are on a
> septic system, your water is probably from a well and untreated like
> municipal water supplies.
> I don't know where you are located but, if you are in an area where it
> gets very cold for extended periods of time here's another
> consideration. If the frost gets down to the weeping bed and the
> tile/ground interface freezes, absorption is drastically reduced.
>
> Again, good luck.
>
> Ross.