Originally built in 1977, the house on Lake Tapps, 36 miles south of Seattle, had started as a small dwelling that previous owners expanded to about 4,000 square feet.
“You’re talking about a million-dollar house on the lake, and they had not given a lot of thought to the septic system,” says Keith Pelzel of Westside Septic Design, who created a solution to a new owner’s problem. The problem was effluent surfacing from a failing onsite system installed without a permit by someone working for the previous owner.
Aside from a relatively small lot, Pelzel confronted two added challenges: a steep slope
