Tapley Returns!

I thought I was through with Lewis Tapley, but he keeps coming back like agita from a bad tuna sub. I was walking over the leach field last week when I discovered another little sink hole in the sand. (The first sink hole was caused by a hole in one of the plastic chambers; it was repaired.) This hole was far more interesting. There are three long plastic chambers connected to each other with PVC pipe. The gray water flows through the chambers and gradually leaches into the ground. The hole I discovered was at the very end of the first chamber. The PVC pipe had become separated from the chamber, and the sand above it filled in the void. This, obviously, is a serious problem. Two thirds of the leach field is not connected to the system. But it also, in my opinion, calls into question the soundness of the whole thing. If one part had moved, creating a separation between pipe and chamber, perhaps other connections had failed as well. The only way to find out is to dig the whole thing up.

Rather than jump to the phone, again, with a complaint to Tapley, I sought another professional opinion. And then I called the plumbing inspector, Lew Hutchins. The plumbing inspector is responsible for, among other things, inspecting the installation of septic systems. Lew shared my concerns about the system as a whole. If I called Tapley to address the problem, and he was less than cooperative, Lew would call Tapley himself. According to Lew, Tapley has to fix it, and if the system fails a couple years from now due to installer incompetence, he'd have to dig the whole thing up and replace it. I wonder if there have been other calls to the plumbing inspector concerning Lewis' work. So I called Lewis yesterday on his cell and left a message. No reply yet. That's OK. He can take his time. He's on the hook for this one.