What can you put over a septic field?

[Chris Goolsby]

I'm a newbie to rural living and could use a little advice. After
many delays and several conflicts with our contractor, my family and I
finally moved onto 14 acres -- part of a 120 acre family farm that has
been in my family forever. I last lived in the country when I was in
junior high school and am painfully and exhaustingly finding out just
how little I know about rural life.

For now, I'd like a little information about what you can do with a
septic field. I've heard you're not supposed to plant any veggies,
etc. over them, but can you put anything else besides grass over the
field. In particular, would it be wise to have a gravel driveway
running over the septic field? My contractor left my driveway
unfinished, so I'm having to get the gravel trucks, etc. lined up to
finish it myself. Unfortunately, they put the septic field right
where I'd like to run the driveway (which wasn't the place the health
department inspector said it was supposed to be, by the way).

Anyway, any information folks on the group could provide would be
appreciated. Also, any general advice on settling in to a rural
community would also be nice. I'm not unknown around here, but have
only been a visitor for many years, not a resident. . . .

Thanks,
Chris
goo...@dg-rtp.dg.com

[Patrick Burke]

In particular, would it be wise to have a gravel driveway
>running over the septic field?

Chris,

In general, this is a bad idea. Your septic system consists of two
parts, the septic tank and the leach field. The septic tank is
usually not designed to take
the kinds of loads cars and trucks can produce. The leach field
is a system of perforated pipes set into gravel not too far below
the surface, these too can easily break under the weight of auto
traffic, rendering the part of the field beyond the break useless.

If you don't want grass over the septic tank (and as the owner of
3/4 acre of lawn I can understand that), you might look for a (or
several) shallow-rooted ground covers, a rock garden, or something
like that. You definately do not want trees or shrubs (the roots
will foul the leach field lines) or deep rooted ground covers (morning
glories can go pretty deep, for example), or vegetables (which,
supposedly, can pick up bacteria in the soil which is still
harmful to humans but which the soil renders harmless over time if
left undisturbed).

Good luck.

Patrick Burke
Social Sciences Computing
The University of Chicago

It sounds as though you have plenty of room, so a
longer, curvier driveway might be in order.

[Hank Roberts]

I read that "grasses" are okay --

Is this true for native (California) bunch grasses, which are perennials,
does anyone know?

I wondewr if there's any difference in the root structure or problems with
the deep-rooted natives, or if drain field pipes can handle them okay.