Restarting a septic system ?

[schiada]

Looking at some land that has a septic system on it . It has been sitting up used for 8+ years. What is the best way to restart it ?
Thanks, Randy

[Don_P]

Eat a high fiber lower fat meal the first time 
We had one excavator/installer that would throw the roadkill of the day in a new tank on the way out to the job in the thought that the bacteria would jump start the system. I think we have all it needs, if not a scoop of good active soil isn't going to hurt it. It would be good to call in a pumper service to uncover the tank and distribution boxes and clean/inspect them.

Ours would go unused for up to a year at a time and finally "broke out" downslope a few years ago. I called Tom who installed it and told him what was happening. "I think its a groundhog hole has shorted the field out" I had evicted a family of them from that area years ago. "Nope, with you all coming and going like you do the soil is saturated then dry, there is a rotten root somewhere in the drainfield across several lines. They don't rot in drainfields that stay saturated but do with people like you who are wet and dry."

He dug a trench alongside and below the last fieldline  across the breakout path as we uncovered the distribution box. They put a different color dye in each field line out of that box and we ran water down each line. In the breakout line of the test trench we got first the color from one line, then the color from another. He moved up between lines, dug another trench and we saw... a rotted out root hole with dye in it. I repacked and actually poured a dike between trenches there and we repacked the lower exploratory trench... in hindsight I should have just put another line and gravel in it while it was open. Anyway, one possibility.

[schiada]

Thanks,Don.

Did some net. reading and think I will have a Co. come take a look.