We purchased a house 3 months ago and the owner disclosed they had grey water by an outside wall in the spring when it rained a lot. We ordered a septic inspection prior to buying the house and the sewage inspector said the greywater was because the sink and the shower in the basement bathroom were not connected to the septic tank. He did a dye test. The owner paid a plumber to have this corrected. We are still getting greywater with an odor and a film all the time, not just when it rains. You can see a small trickle all the time coming out of the bottom of the outside wall. We ran a snake through the drain that runs across the yard for water drainage and it was clean. The greywater has an odor and a film. Could our septic tank be leaking and since we were told by the septic inspector all looked fine before buying the house, are we responsible to correct this? Someone told us this could be an underground spring, but why the septic odor. Can you help? Thanks

On septic systems the kitchen sink and the washer drain line are run separately through a grease trap where the grease and food partials from the sink and the grease and fiber from the washer are trapped before sending the liquid on through to the septic tank. You must first ascertain if you have such a grease trap and where the gray water line goes if it doesn't go to the septic tank. The plumber that "corrected" this should have informed you about what you have under ground. Call him back and get some answers. And then get back to me. Regards, Tom

Tom,
Thanks for your response. Our problem is that the prev owners were running the basement bathroom sink and shower into the ground and not the septic tank. We live in Pa and that is a law that this gray water must go to a septic tank. Before we bought the house, because the prev owner disclosed they had gray water in the spring when it rained by an outside wall, we ordered a septic inspection before buying the home. The septic inspector said the gray water problem was from the basement bathroom sink and shower not being connected to the septic tank. He did a dye test and said everything else was hooked up fine and he pumped the septic tank and checked the drain field and said all looked good. The prev owner paid a plumber to put in a pump in the basement floor and connect the shower and sink in the basement bathroom to the septic tank. But that did not take care of the gray water outside the house just below a wall where the septic tank is located. According to the septic tank inspector all should be fine. Everything is hooked up to the septic tank. As a matter of fact, we don't use the basement bathroom at all yet because we are redoing it first. So we don't use that sink and shower at all. So where is the gray water coming from. Did the septic inspector miss something. Would you think that there is a leak in out tank? Or is our neighbor running gray water into the ground. He lives up a hill from us? We are to collect a water sample of the little trickle coming out our outside wall and check for detergents and fecal coliform. Also if something is wrong with our septic system, do we have a leg to stand on. We ordered a test prior to buying the house, and according to the septic inspector, he told us what the problem was and the prev owner paid to fix this and we bought the house. Never would we buy a house with a septic tank and not have an inspection done first. But now if there is another problem with our septic tank that they didn't see, are we stuck paying for the repair. Does the septic inspector have any responsibility towards this? We were told by someone that in Pa the home buyer doesn't have a leg to stand on. Then why pay for something to be checked, and if the person you pay to check it makes a mistake, they have no liability towards the repair. So any advise you have I would appreciate. We are just getting a water testing done of the small water trickle they call gray water. By the way, it has an oder and a film. Someone said maybe we have an underground spring, and from the years of the prev owner running the bathroom sink and shower water into the ground, that it will take time for this oder to go away. But it is wet all the time by the wall of the house in one spot and it stinks. It is just a small area but it never drys up. You can actually see a tiny trickle of water coming out of this outside wall. I know it is hard to explain this, but I hope you see what I am saying. Thanks for any advice.

If the septic tank inspector ran a camera through your system and could find no breaks or open lines then you must look elsewhere. If your gray water was originally discharged into the ground then perhaps your neighbor is discharging his into the ground also. Living uphill from you certainly throws suspicion on him. Has anyone dug down to see if the source of the gray water can be located? Did the septic inspector even send a camera down your lines to be sure they had no breaks? Let me know. Tom