foul smell from vent pipe after new septic tank installed

This may be a stretch----Is the tank empty? Try filling it--there may be a trap that is dry because of it and you may be venting the public system through a spot that should be submerged.

I'm with Kilgore Trout on this too, a dry trap.

Living in a small town myself I'd suggest have the town fire tank truck add water to the new sewer tank. Then if the problem persists you are not out the cost.

Hello tzz

Your community sewer pipe requires vents at definite distances, to vent sewer gas from the pipe/s and tank/s.

The vents are normally vertical pipes in the road area, which are around 15 feet high, sometimes with a small bird excluder in the top of that vent pipe.

There should be at least one vent pipe in that distance between the community holding tank and your home, and often these community sewer vent pipes are designed to look like a standard lamp, or are fitted against a lamp pole - see picture at left please.

What has probably happened, is that the sewer gas (eye-watering choking stuff, and very unhealthy) is generated in the community tank, and rises to the highest point, requiring a

You will not have any water trap between the community tank and your vent pipe, and your vent pipe is to enable the water trap to remain full of water in the porcelain WC in your toilet, after the flush operation.

Without the external high vent pipe at your home, when the WC was flushed, the contents being hurtled down the sewer pipe would suck the water seal out of the U-tube inverted siphon (in your WC) which seals out the sewer gas from the sewer pipe and everyone else's sewer pipes, from coming into your toilet room.

The contractors who installed the community sewer and/or your local Authority who engaged them should be contacted at once, and it is really best to see the Engineer for the Local Authority, and ask that a vent pipe be installed in the roadway area, as it should have been, to vent the sewer gas before it arrives at your home.

If all else fails, you could install a large porous charcoal filter on the top of your pipe, for typical odor filters, please see picture at left, obtainable from: http://www.septicsolutions.net/store/septicodor_ventfilter.htm

In a community situation, you may have to replace the charcoal element frequently, at your own cost, and that is not fair.

Advise your progress, or lack thereof, with

Kind Regards....

Hi tzz,

You have received some good answers. Are you saying that you had to put in a new tank to connect to the sewer? I never heard of that. Sewers around here eliminate the need for a tank. I think somebody doesn't know what they are doing. Good luck!

S

Sounds like the city sewer district didn't want to build a system large enough to handle the flow. Rather than put in a large main pipe now that wouldn't be used near capacity they put in a minimum sized pipe for existing usage.
Or maybe they are actually thinking ahead and anticipating a large growth spurt and requiring everyone to have temporary holding tanks installed so when the city does grow beyond the sewers capabilities there won't be a problem.

We've been using holding tanks more and more in the St. Louis area. Its either that or when we do a development they have to replace the existing sewer system for miles instead of a few hundred feet. The existing systems just are not big enough to handle todays waste productions. So we have to provide retention even for the waste system. And on large projects it gets released at low flow times of the night.

As to your stink problem it does sound like you have a dry trap or no trap.

I have to drop a one of those spiked shaped fishing wieghts down a couple of my vent pipes each year.

A crust seems to form over the bottom of the vent pipe if the up stairs bath rooms are not used often. They dry out espically in a drought and then the gas is force back into the house.

One crust was so thick I had to use a steel rod with a rope on it and drop it several times. Caution that if you have a cast iron system not to get aggressive and break a hole in the 90 at the bottom of the vent pipe. You will have a great stink then .

Please try to not drop that pole in there again.

I agree.

Dear Sir/Madam: Have you considered, you may have a small dead animal or bird in the vent pipe. Take a Garden Hose up to the top of vent pipe, While water is running go down to bottom see if the water you are putting in is getting to the bottom. If it is or not, Gives you an indication if Vent is Plugged, Partly Plugged or Cleared. Hope This helps your Situation. Retired Troubleshooter, Carl.

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