Snowmelt causes flood of septic issues, impacts wells, outside Flagstaff

Walking across the muddy ground to the septic system behind Tweet’s house, Busy B co-owner Chris Bonaparte lifted the concrete covers only to find exactly what both of them expected: tanks full of snowmelt.

“There’s a drainage line that runs behind our house and that runs directly past our septic,” Tweet said. “And so that’s what happened is it ran past septic and then flooded through the septic risers.”

Tweet isn’t the only one experience septic system issues. Across rural neighborhoods around Flagstaff dozens, if not hundreds, of residents have seen their septic systems flood, sometimes multiple times, as snowmelt has saturated the earth.

Crista Bonaparte said the phone of her and her husband’s business started ringing several weeks ago when snow began to melt in earnest and simply hasn’t stopped.

“We’ve been slammed with tons and tons of tanks just flooding out,” Crista said. “We’re pulling out tanks that have like 1,000-gallon capacities, we’re pulling out 2,500 gallons because as we’re pumping, water is just pouring back in.”

Crista said they are usually kept pretty busy with routine septic pumping but the last couple of weeks, they have pumped between 75 to 100 systems for homes that have been experiencing runoff issues.

Shane Sandoval, who owns AZ Alternative Septic Solutions and H&R Septic Services, shared a similar story. Sandoval said he worked 21 days straight just to keep up with the calls they were getting.

“It’s been good 12 or 13 years since I remember it being bad like this,” Sandoval said.

While Sandoval said he has been getting the most calls from Mountainaire and Baderville, Crista said they have been largely helping residents of Baderville but have also gone out to pump systems in Lockett Ranches, Munds Park and Parks.

Sandoval said houses are so close together in Mountainaire — compared to other rural areas such as Baderville — that he would pump three houses right in a row that were all having the same issues with runoff.

And Crista said she has told several people in Munds Park, which is made up largely of second-home owners, that they may want to consider just going home and return to the high country once the area has started to dry.

One problem has been that, just as they are emptying residents septic system, more water just pours back in.

“You can hear it; it’s like a river,” Crista said. “So we’re pumping until the truck stops and filling up the whole truck — which is 2,500 gallons.”

Both Sandoval and Crista said that for some residents, they have had to go back time and time again to pump systems just in the last few weeks.

And Sandoval said he has encountered several customers who, after seeing their septic fill up again and again, decided simply to move in with friends in Flagstaff of rent a motel until the ground starts to dry out again.

“I mean, we just tried to get them to where they can clear their bathtubs and their toilets and so they can do a little laundry. But the ground water was coming in so fast, for some of these systems, it was a matter of hours, if not days, [before the systems were full again.]” Sandoval said.

Shirleen Meyers, who lives in Mountainaire, said she was one of those who has had to have her septic system worked on twice in the last few weeks.

Meyers, who has lived in Mountainaire since 2013, said her system first backed up on April 19.

“I mean, you could literally say it was a [expletive] show here for a bit,” Meyers said.

That saturated ground has caused other difficulties, too.

Crista said in the beginning there were times the ground was so soft they couldn’t get their tuck close enough to the septic system to pump it for fear it would just sink into the ground.

But even as busy as this past month has been, neither Sandoval nor Crista said they were surprised by the onrush of clients.

And Sandoval said, with all the snow Flagstaff has got, he is honestly surprised it hasn’t been worse than it is.

Cindy Doskocil, who heads the Fort Valley Association and has lived in the Fort Valley/Baderville area for 42 years, said she pretty much expected these impacts after such a heavy winter.

Doskocil said she hasn’t been impacted herself this year but she and other longtime residents have lived through plenty of heavy winters and have seen impacts to their septic tanks numerous times.

“I mean, this is not the first event that we’ve had like this. You know, we had one in ‘91, we had one in ‘92, we had one in ‘94, we had one in 2004 and one in 2005,” Doskocil said.

For Doskocil, what’s different this time, and what might make the issue feel bigger now than in the past, is that so many more people are living in these rural communities.

Baderville, as with other rural areas around Flagstaff such as Munds Park, has seen a significant amount of growth over the last few years. And often, Doskocil said, homeowners don’t realize that the property they’re building on can become a pond as soon as the ground is saturated with water.

After all, Baderville in particular is in large part a geologic lakebed, Doskocil said. All that leads to septic tanks filling up and more homes equals a bigger problem.

Doskocil added that the septic issues can have knock on consequences, particularly to water wells in the area. She said she has heard from several residents who have had water from their wells tested and found contaminants such as E. coli.

Doskocil said others have reported that, while their water doesn’t have contaminants, when they turn on the faucet it comes out a little brown.

“So they’re getting that from high-surface water and saturating groundwater with improper [septic] leaching, and that that’s something that happens,” Doskocil said. “I try to tell them, just don’t drink the water, just get bottled water until it clears up.”

Doskocil said as things dry out and septic systems stop flooding, dilution will solve most of the contamination issues some residents have experienced.

For longtimers in the area, it’s not unusual to occasionally have to buy bottled water, Doskocil said.

She advises residents of Baderville, and everyone who relies on well water, to get samples of their well water tested fairly regularly, and also advises that wells be tested at least twice a year.

“We don’t want anybody to get sick from it. So it’s just it’s a matter of just being careful getting the water tested,” Doskocil said.

And Doskocil said the whole issue could suggest that residents, and the powers that be, need to take a harder look at where homes are being built, and if they are in what are essentially perennial wetlands.