How to loosen up Packed Pits....?

[Rudy]

Normally, I used to have a septic company come once a year to clean my pits. It's horribly expensive here. They end up using a garden hose to "loosen" up the dirt so that it can be sucked up....And guess what....I end up paying to have this water hauled away also !!! It's a rip.

What can I use (ahead of time) to bust up the pit dirt so that it flows easier, and therefore less water is needed? Has anyone tried using a powered post hole digger, or other powered device. My pits are way overdue, and the mud is packed tightly. I need ideas....

 

[Plow Guy]

Rudy, try crustbusters.com. My pits are about 350 gallons each; I pump them out two to three times a year. It works best when there is still some water left in the tank, about a foot above the actual sediment. There is a hard layer, about a foot thick and underneath that it's quite a bit softer, my crust Buster has the folding blades. Good luck.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

we, always use the garden hose at it sucks it up much quicker, but when his truck gets full about 3k gallons ,he drops the suction and my pits take the water back until it starts to get thicker, and then there is enough room for alot more dirt. Our dirt goes to the landfill so they don't want the water anyway. I would guess we dump back 5-600 gallons

john

 

[MEP001]

We have a local company that pumps ours - they have a huge truck with enough suction that they don't need any water to remove the mud. On the plus side, they're much cheaper than septic companies like Roto-Rooter who charge three or four times as much, but on the downside they're still gouging us in a way. They charge by the volume of the pits, and whether they haul off mud or water we pay the same thing, and they won't skip the auto bay which would probably take 20 years to fill. There was a cheaper company that would dump the water back in the pits and charge only for the mud they hauled off, but they're no longer in business.

 

[Rudy]

It's funny you say that....because that's what is prompting my question. You see, like you, I found a company that had an industrial sized pumping truck. It required almost no water to clean the pits. I remember the guy saying that they could suck a brick through the hose. It was awesome to see. If I remember correctly, the hose was probably over 12 inches in diameter....maybe as much as 16 inches???

The unit septic cleaning companies use is pale in comparison. Their hose is probably six or eight inches in diameter.

Unfortunately, the industrial outfit will not accept car wash business anymore...so it seems I'm stuck with the septic guys.

 

[soapy]

I have a ringomatic pit trailer that uses a 3 inch hose. On the exhaust side of the gas engine you can hook up a long hose with a metal pipe. The exhaust air of the engine is used to loosen up the dirt by forcing air down into the mud. That being said I hardly ever have to use it. With good vacuum of 15 to 20 bar it will suck up almost anything. WHen I do get real heavy black sand we use the handy clam to remove the little bit that remains.

 

[Kevin Reilly]

I have a Ring-0-Matic pumper also. We hook a long high pressure hose to one of our bays with a straight shot. When it's needed we use the straight shot at the end of a 5' wand to saw or break down the mud that's packed. This way we don't get too much water compared to a hose and breaking it up makes the job very quick. It's still a dirty job but somebody's got to do it!

 

[frside1]

i use a ring-o-matic pit digger. water comes out of clam shell back to pit and then we just dump mud into the trailer. we get pretty much mud only.

 

[Kevin James]

Once a month in the early evening I pump out the water from one of my pits, get out the Handy clam shovel and clean out the pit, I do one pit a month. I dump the dirt in the bay and leave it over night. The next morning I shovel it into the dumpster. The first time I did it the garbage truck driver didn?t like it. He said it was contaminated waste. I called BS on him, spend some big money to have it tested and every test came out clean. I pulled a sample from the storm drain down the street and it came back contaminated with heavy metals, lead, asbestos and petroleum. The city puts there catch basin pit waste in the dumpster behind there shop. Now the garbage guy?s take the dirt without any problems. I found that if I clean out the pits often they don't pack down and they are easier to clean.

 

[robtl]

The co I use has a hand held gas post hole digger with a modified bit with a fan blade welded on the end of a rod or pipe which is about 4' long and about 1 1/2" in dia. they run it in the mud with the water still on top and make a real soupy slurry to be sucked up with their pumper truck this works very good for them!

 

[Red Baron]

The co I use has a hand held gas post hole digger with a modified bit with a fan blade welded on the end of a rod or pipe which is about 4' long and about 1 1/2" in dia. they run it in the mud with the water still on top and make a real soupy slurry to be sucked up with their pumper truck this works very good for them!

Mud is thixotrophic, like cement and asphalt emulsion, meaning that when you excite (vibrate) it, it get gets a lot les viscous. So, pretty much anything that would vibrate the mud will make it sloppier and easier to pump.

 

[soapy]

Some of the posts got me thinking about a solution to this problem. Up here in the cold north people go ice fishing and use a gas powered auger or a hand crank auger to cut through the ice. Either one of these would break up the pit dirt in short order and make it easy to remove.

 

[Washmee]

Here in Ohio, pit dirt is considered toxic waste and has to be removed and hauled by a licensed waste company. They suck it from your pits and then have to take it to a certified waste disposal facility. It then has to go to a drying pad were any water runoff is collected and taken to another treatment plant and the remaining dirt is left to dry out. The dry dirt is tested and only then is buried in the approved landfill. This is very expensive($1000+) for each truck load.

 

[soapy]

The EPA and California have tested pit dirt many times and classify it as street sweepings. As long as it is dry it is not considered hazardous. If you dry it on your own land they consider that OK.

 

[MEP001]

The EPA and California have tested pit dirt many times and classify it as street sweepings. As long as it is dry it is not considered hazardous. If you dry it on your own land they consider that OK.

I've read the same thing. I've also done what Kevin James does, and it's legal by EPA standards. As long as the mud has dried and the water runoff has been allowed to flow into a sanitary sewer you can dispose of the dirt in your dumpster.

 

[MEP001]

Some of the posts got me thinking about a solution to this problem. Up here in the cold north people go ice fishing and use a gas powered auger or a hand crank auger to cut through the ice. Either one of these would break up the pit dirt in short order and make it easy to remove.

Sounds very much like what robtl described.

 

[rph9168]

I heard of a wash out West where the owner spread the pit mut out on some land he owned. Not long after he had a nice crop of marijuana growing in his field from seeds that must have found their way into the pit. (At least that's the way he explained it to the cops.)