Trees and leach field

[Old560]

Anybody have an opinion on how close a trees should be planted to a Leach field do they destroy the leach fields with their roots?

 

[1948CaseVAI]

Trees and leach fields don;'t mix. When you think you are out far enough, go further. The roots can costs you a lot of money. It is really a pretty simple concept and it is hard for me to understand why there is confusion.

 

[stdsch40]

There are many different types of leach fields. How is yours constructed? Trees may/will aid in the disposal of wastewater if the wastewater is not too strong and dispersed correctly. A lot depends on the type of soil in your leach field as well as the climate in your area and types of trees. I have a wastewater disposal license for my area and generally am required to follow their design guidelines however, in practical everyday real world situations often times the authorities guidelines are lacking natural logic. Try and describe your environment and the type of leach field you have and I'll offer up more thoughts.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Anybody have an opinion on how close a trees should be planted to a Leach field do they destroy the leach fields with their roots?

I'm not a tree hugger..
In 2011 we had 100 mph straight line winds.
The damn trees took power lines down for 3 weeks and did extensive damage to my buildings.
Thank God I had good insurance.
After that I had over 30 trees removed.
My rule of thumb, no tree should be within a 100 feet of my buildings.
I will only plant ornamental trees. Trees are messy, leaves and sticks to deal with
Every time we have a tornado or straight line winds, the news media loves to show trees on top of cars and houses.
Do yourself a favor, remove the trees now.
I have 2 trees that are far away from buildings, but they are becoming a liability. Both were damaged by lightning.
I'm going to wait for snow. I will pay t have the trees dropped. Put a FREE ad on Craigslist, FREE OAK FIREWOOD.
That is how I got rid of trees in the past.

 

[THinAl.]

I do perc tests for new construction and repair or replacements for existing leach fields.

I agree with stdsch40.

Willow trees and Bradford pear trees are two of the worst trees to have anywhere near a leach field.

 

[stdsch40]

I'm not a tree hugger..
In 2011 we had 100 mph straight line winds.
The damn trees took power lines down for 3 weeks and did extensive damage to my buildings.
Thank God I had good insurance.
After that I had over 30 trees removed.
My rule of thumb, no tree should be within a 100 feet of my buildings.
I will only plant ornamental trees. Trees are messy, leaves and sticks to deal with
Every time we have a tornado or straight line winds, the news media loves to show trees on top of cars and houses.
Do yourself a favor, remove the trees now.
I have 2 trees that are far away from buildings, but they are becoming a liability. Both were damaged by lightning.
I'm going to wait for snow. I will pay t have the trees dropped. Put a FREE ad on Craigslist, FREE OAK FIREWOOD.
That is how I got rid of trees in the past.

I just happen to agree with you. No trees near the buildings is best. However for disposal of wastewater trees could sure help but it would depend entirely on the particular situation and climate in the area. How close is the leach field? Is the leach field only for household waste? All kinds of factors to consider.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I just happen to agree with you. No trees near the buildings is best. However for disposal of wastewater trees could sure help but it would depend entirely on the particular situation and climate in the area. How close is the leach field? Is the leach field only for household waste? All kinds of factors to consider.

All but one property with a leach field that was installed in 1968. Never had a problem with too much water. Trees don't do much good in the winter. I have 7 other properties I had no choice but to connect to city sewers in 1991 even though they are 3 miles out of the city limits.
NO TREES FOR ME!

 

[kencombs]

I do perc tests for new construction and repair or replacements for existing leach fields.

I agree with stdsch40.

Willow trees and Bradford pear trees are two of the worst trees to have anywhere near a leach field.

Add the hybrid poplar that was popular with landscapers back in the 70/80s. Darned things have very invasive root system.

 

[stdsch40]

All but one property with a leach field that was installed in 1968. Never had a problem with too much water. Trees don't do much good in the winter. I have 7 other properties I had no choice but to connect to city sewers in 1991 even though they are 3 miles out of the city limits.
NO TREES FOR ME!

Near me the 'big city' is basically forcing homeowners (outside the city limits) to connect to their 'system' via forced/pumped sewers. The costs are crazy high for the homeowners. Plus they now have to pay for sewer services. But the idiot planners allowed way too many houses too close together with insufficient area for the leach fields. Plus those people had water wells, resulting in contaminated well water. The whole situation became untenable due to poor initial planning. I'm far enough away from that big city to never have to worry about being forced to connect. By the way leach fields do not last forever, best to have sufficent extra area set aside for a replacement 'field' sometime in the future. The concept of 'leach fields' is only one way of dealing with wastewater, there are other ideas that work but it depends entirely on your climate and circumstances.
To put things very bluntly...how about you deal with your sh!t on your property?

 

[leroy in ne]

Village: sewer mains in center of 66 ft right of way. No trees permitted to be planted in right of way. Plugged main with roots and a maple WEED will be on an adjoining property.
I can see the same occurring with a leach field.

 

[Old560]

There are many different types of leach fields. How is yours constructed? Trees may/will aid in the disposal of wastewater if the wastewater is not too strong and dispersed correctly. A lot depends on the type of soil in your leach field as well as the climate in your area and types of trees. I have a wastewater disposal license for my area and generally am required to follow their design guidelines however, in practical everyday real world situations often times the authorities guidelines are lacking natural logic. Try and describe your environment and the type of leach field you have and I'll offer up more thoughts.

The tree is a Siberian Elm within 8 feet of one of the lines on the leach field. Soil is all Clay. The system uses half round plastic pipe approximately 2 foot diameter from what I can tell. very little rain falls here eastern Colorado. I think our annual precipitation is around 12 inches to 17 inches.

 

[Janicholson]

The tree is a Siberian Elm within 8 feet of one of the lines on the leach field. Soil is all Clay. The system uses half round plastic pipe approximately 2 foot diameter from what I can tell. very little rain falls here eastern Colorado. I think our annual precipitation is around 12 inches to 17 inches.

50 ft is still too close. Mu neighbor has one of these small leaved elms and its roots cover much of my back yard (it is on the fence row). These trees are often considered "weeds" in that they do not produce lumber of value. They do grow fast and make lots of seeds. The one I refer to is 3ft at the stump, has split to the ground and been bolted back together. it is not my friend. Jim

 

[stdsch40]

The tree is a Siberian Elm within 8 feet of one of the lines on the leach field. Soil is all Clay. The system uses half round plastic pipe approximately 2 foot diameter from what I can tell. very little rain falls here eastern Colorado. I think our annual precipitation is around 12 inches to 17 inches.

From what you have described you have what's called an 'infiltrator' style leach field. Similar to what's shown in this picture.

These types of systems are pretty forgiving and very suitable for clay soils (very poor drainage in clay). In my experience most of the effluent water rises through the soil to the surface (slowly) and is evaporated away even in winter. Depending on what your effluent flow rate is and the fact you don't get much rain, that tree is gonna love getting some water. Its just my opinion of course, I would not worry about that tree upsetting your leach field in the least. Now I wouldn't go planting trees on top of the leach field but 1 tree 8 ft away from one of the 'chamber trenches' isn't gonna hurt anything. Then again if you don't like that tree anyways for what ever reason...

 

[paul]

8 feet is awful close. In dry conditions trees seek out water, and when they find that close line will stimulate more root growth to catch more water and nutrients. It’s not uncommon for a tree to completely plug a tile line with roots as they increase the root mass in that area. Generally the roots are as far out as the branches above. We put tile 30 feet from a tree and run into problems sometimes.

The difference tile is about 3 feet deep, modern leach fields are a foot or less these days. I don’t know if that will matter to your tree?

There are copper treatments to control roots, but that would be terrible for the septic tank microbes, not sure that is an idea either.

Paul

 

[Old560]

From what you have described you have what's called an 'infiltrator' style leach field. Similar to what's shown in this picture.
View attachment 112909


These types of systems are pretty forgiving and very suitable for clay soils (very poor drainage in clay). In my experience most of the effluent water rises through the soil to the surface (slowly) and is evaporated away even in winter. Depending on what your effluent flow rate is and the fact you don't get much rain, that tree is gonna love getting some water. Its just my opinion of course, I would not worry about that tree upsetting your leach field in the least. Now I wouldn't go planting trees on top of the leach field but 1 tree 8 ft away from one of the 'chamber trenches' isn't gonna hurt anything. Then again if you don't like that tree anyways for what ever reason...

Thank you .

 

[Buckhammer]

Anybody have an opinion on how close a trees should be planted to a Leach field do they destroy the leach fields with their roots?

A trees roots will be as long as the tree is tall. If you have a tree that is 60 ft. tall then it will have roots that are 60 ft. long.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

They would sell this copper sulfate stuff at the coop to kill those tree roots. Now what it does to the tree I don’t know but it was supposedly quite effective

 

[caterpillar guy]

A subsoiler tooth pulled through the ground about 1.5-2 feet deep will cut most all the roots off going to the line just disturbs the top of the yard doing it. Would cut the roots off so they don't grow more and would keep future roots out if done about halfway between the tree and line.

 

[Super B]

The tree is a Siberian Elm within 8 feet of one of the lines on the leach field. Soil is all Clay. The system uses half round plastic pipe approximately 2 foot diameter from what I can tell. very little rain falls here eastern Colorado. I think our annual precipitation is around 12 inches to 17 inches.

The chamber system described is not affected by tree roots if draining properly. It is not like a drainage tile or a sewer main that are full of water , tree roots will not grow into open air space under ground and will not plug a chamber system.

 

[cjunrau]

From what you have described you have what's called an 'infiltrator' style leach field. Similar to what's shown in this picture.
View attachment 112909


These types of systems are pretty forgiving and very suitable for clay soils (very poor drainage in clay). In my experience most of the effluent water rises through the soil to the surface (slowly) and is evaporated away even in winter. Depending on what your effluent flow rate is and the fact you don't get much rain, that tree is gonna love getting some water. Its just my opinion of course, I would not worry about that tree upsetting your leach field in the least. Now I wouldn't go planting trees on top of the leach field but 1 tree 8 ft away from one of the 'chamber trenches' isn't gonna hurt anything. Then again if you don't like that tree anyways for what ever reason...

I agree with this.