We've been told the bit about the leach field before, and I had my own suspicions about the tank as well. However, he also warned that our tank was also too small for both our house and our cabin--which was something else that I had wondered. He was surprised that any of this had passed inspection prior to the sale of the house--which I had openly asked about at the time when we were in the process of buying the house, but was assured that it was fine.
Actually, it's probably better that we are replacing it rather than whatever else the previous owners might have done before we bought it. This way, we know that it will be to code and working. Who knows what other corners might have been cut if they had to do it again?
There are several other elements that I had wondered about that this also affects. One is that just last year we put in a fire pit in the near vicinity as it is only of the few areas of open lawn that we have. Unfortunately, we will need to haul all of the gravel we put in to a different location and redo the pit--in yet another different location--once they have completed. The second is that they will need to remove quite a few nearby trees to put in a large enough of a leach field. Fortunately, almost all of the trees in question are dead due to the spruce beetle plague, so this is actually doing us a favor. And last, they are going to flatten out the entire area, which means a significant impact on our old sledding hill. This makes me more grateful that Connor created a better sled run for us this past winter.
All told, this is going to be quite expensive as it will include removing the old septic system and then putting in two new tanks (one for the house and one for the cabin--both guaranteed for twenty years) and a substantially larger leach field. Still, the estimate he gave me was on the lower end of what I had expected this to cost: $13,000 (I had been fearing it would be $20,000 or more based on some Internet research I had done). At least we will finally have peace of mind when it comes to washing clothes or flushing the toilets.