Hello all,

I have been living in my house for 2 years and had no idea it had a septic tank until I saw my neighbor having his tank pumped out.I should note I am an expatriate living in Central America. So prior to finding out the house had a septic tank we abused the system, meaning we were not careful about what went down the drain. We washed tons of clothes in one day, Drano to unclog drains, bleach in drains to prevent clogs, greasy dishes, etc.. Once I found out about the septic system we started being careful. I had already planned to have the tank pumped, but before I was able to, water started coming out of the ground. So I had the back yard dug up until we found the system and it is different than what I have been reading about. It has the normal septic tank with two sides in it, then about 10ft away it has a vertical/cylindrical drainage system. They pumped out 8 cubic meters of liquid(2,113 gallons). I have not completely sealed it back up because the lids were falling apart and I had new ones made. The old lids were put back in place but I didnt cover it back up with dirt yet. Last night a freak storm hit us and it rained like crazy. So today we opened everything up to put the lids back on and everything is full again. It has been 19 days since it was pumped.I know the rain had to have drain into the system, but i dont think it could have filled it up this much. Any Ideas as to what I should do now? How do I know if the drain field is failed or if the complete system has failed? Has anyone heard of a cylindrical/vertical drainage system? The house is about 20 years old but was vacant for more than 5 years before I moved in. The says it has never been pumped or has never had any problems.

Thanks..