OK, time for some down-home plumbing ideas...
We built our principal home 11 years ago. While we were digging out for the basement and foundation, we got real close to the water table. The soil is clay. As it wound up, the water table, at it's highest, rides about 4 - 6" below the basement concrete slab. So, the sump pit (a standard plastic pit, about 24" round and 30" deep) carries water most all the time. I had to set the pump to go off right near the top to keep it from constantly cycling. We also added a battery powered emergency back up. Some of the winters have been particularly dry and the sump would nearly empty, but that was not the norm. Whenever there was water in it, it was clean and clear. When it rained good, it would cycle occasionally, so the water change was fairly regular....except the winter.
About 2 years ago, I started to notice a change in the water quality in the pit. It started to smell a little stagnant. I didn't react, hoping it was some old water and needed to flush through with a good rain. Well, it got worse...and worse. Today, I get black gunk running in thru the 4" corrugated feed that delivers the perimeter foundation drains. And man, does it smell stagnant like a swamp. The whole basement (thank God I never finished it off) stinks. This morning I pulled the pump, and jeesh...stirring up the bubbling cauldron is ghastly. The pump has a black coating of flimsy jello-like sumstance that blasted off with the garden hose. It still works OK. Then I see little 1/4" long tadpole kinda things floating around on the surface, wiggling back and forth. Are these mosquitoe larvae? They look like miniature tadpoles, wiggling in a "bend left, then right, then left" kinda motion.
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I can't believe that the main septic tank line broke and is flushing down to the drains. It doesn't have that disgusting sweet musty odor.
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What to do?
