What is the flooding test?
JSA: The flooding test is when an inspector discharges a vast amount of water into the system to determine if it can handle the flow. It is assumed that if it does the system is working properly. By opening all the water sources in the house at once, the inspector can often add 500-1000 gallons of water into the system. This is a very dangerous test because it may do damage even to a properly working system. By flooding the septic tank, undigested solid waste material will be pushed out into the leach field. This will further contribute to problems the leach field may already have. In addition, it will dilute the good bacteria in the septic tank rendering it useless to breakdown solids for a period of time. This test has limited use and must be done by a trained inspector only when other methods of determining problems are exhausted.
