Make a big bon fire over where its froze.

Anyone use horse manure over their lines?

If you have standing water in your drainfield you probably had drainfield issues before the freezing started. A properly working drainfield will generate it's own heat with bacterial decomposition. If you have thawed standing water in the drainfield your filter bed has probably been plugged for some time but you are only noticing it now. Same thing happened to my mound system a few years back. Only 7 years old but filter bed plugged, quit taking grey water and started seeping out the top. Septic man said they would need to strip off and rebuild the mound ($15,000). Long story short, I tried a septic tank aerator first and it fixed the problem.

don't pump tank in winter !!!! tank should be putting off a lot of heat sure wife didn't kill tank with cleaner bleach ?

Yep, standing water in the tank and drainfield says tank is putting off plenty of heat. May not be a freezing problem.....yet.

Black landscape fabric might catch sun's heat and still provide venting. Straw/hay will insulate from atmosphere cold but if already frozen it won't do much to thaw.

Thanks for all the help ...

One Question...the septic guy told me boiling heavy Salt water to melt the ice...after pouring down gallons of rock salt water now I see when I Googled it on a Minnesota State website that it says one of the four Biggie's is not to use salt but they don't tell me why???

Snow is a good insulator, When I can I use a snowblower to blow as much snow over the septic field as possible to keep the system from freezing.

I would think the change to salty water would likely kill off plenty of bacteria that are doing the dirty work of breaking down the sewage. People do things like that all the time to take care of the immediate problem not realizing that they are letting raw sewage seep back into the ground water where it can be pumped back as tap water.

Clark

I have a "mound system" and as a precaution I stop mowing the grass over the drain field about Labor Day to give it more cover in case of an open winter, as we are experiencing right now.

You may be trying to melt something that is not frozen. You said earlier that you have liquid water standing in the tank and drainfield pipe. That sure sounds like your filter bed is clogged. If the filter bed was frozen the water in the drainfield pipe above the filter bed would be frozen as well. Frost starts at the surface and goes down.

After the Holiday today I'm calling the septic builder from 21 years ago...might be able to trade him ADC work for his professional help.... maybe, thanks for all the ideas everyone.

21 years is a long time for any system. If he tells you that you need a system rebuild,you might want to check this out.
https://www.aero-stream.com/septic-sewage.html
Might sound too good to be true but it worked for my system.

still trying to warp my mind around vents on a septic system

There are several routes you could take depending on funds, availability and conditions. Insulating the ground with hay, straw, snow etc will hold in the existing heat in the ground, but not add heat, making for a slow thaw. A faster solution is to either heat the ground or heat the lines from the inside.
Heating the ground can be accomplished with a bonfire like Boco said, or by renting ground heater blankets. They are used for thawing ground for winter dirt & concrete work, and should be rentable from a construction equipment outfit. Or you can make your own with a bunch of electric heat trace zip tied to a grid (like a pallet or old bed spring), laid on the ground and covered with insulation.

Heating the inside of the lines can be accomplished with a steam jet (either hired or homemade); a hot water jet (messier but effective), or a solid electric heat probe, also available from some rental outfits. Although the solid probe depends on being able to get it to the frozen section. I believe most RotoRooter contractors now offer steam jetting. A quote might be worth it.

Regardless of how you get it thawed, like others have said this is just a symptom of a larger problem, as a properly working drain field should never have standing water that can freeze. I’d recommend you remedy that ASAP this summer.

@ cotton, most drain field “vents” are more commonly called “clean-outs” or “access holes,” for pumping and testing the system, not actually venting. For example... for seeing if you have standing water in your system! And most septic systems have them, though they may be capped below the sod.

I'm dealing with the same problem myself. You need to find out where the freeze is at. Mine was frozen in the line coming out of the house. I covered it with a lot of hay and I plan on tarping it as well mine seems to be working now. First time in 25 yrs., for this. It sounds like yours might be in the drain field since your back up is coming out the clean outs. I think Jacks is on the right track or at least his idea is what I was going to try next. I was going to try a stock tank heater as well if the tank is freezing. If you are close to me let me know if you need a hand I'm in Wright County.

My outhouse is working just fine! The only cold weather modification I made was to carve a Styrofoam seat to avoid instant hypothermia upon sitting down.

Pete

Beware of the cobra head as winter wears on! It is sometimes necessary to take a 2x4 and knock the head off the cobra so it doesn't get you when you sit down.

hate to hijack this post

@ cotton, most drain field “vents” are more commonly called “clean-outs” or “access holes,” for pumping and testing the system, not actually venting. For example... for seeing if you have standing water in your system! And most septic systems have them, though they may be capped below the sod.

here the only way to pump or even check a tank system is to dig and open the tank lid.
a pump system will have a way to check with out diging atleast in the first tank.