There's a wet, spongy area near where I believe the tank sits, and it's been getting bigger for about a week even

[soumitss]

Something is leaking. There's a wet, spongy area near where I believe the tank sits, and it's been getting bigger for about a week even though we haven't had much rain. The smell is faint but definitely there. Everything inside works normally. I'm guessing this isn't going to fix itself, but I have no sense of whether I'm looking at a small repair or something major, and I'd like to walk into the conversation informed. The tank was installed in the mid nineties as far as I can tell, and I have no records of any repair work ever being done on it. Trying to figure out how worried I should actually be.

[hydrogenn]

Surface wetness near the tank with normal indoor function usually means a cracked lid, a failed seal, or a broken inlet or outlet baffle rather than a whole system failure, so the odds are on the cheaper end. It can also be a broken line between house and tank. Either way it needs to be opened up and looked at rather than diagnosed from the surface. We had Septic Solutions do a Septic Repair Service on ours after a similar week and it was a cracked lid. Keep kids and pets off that ground until it's sorted, and don't drive over it, saturated soil compacts badly. Photograph the wet area before anyone digs, it helps later if there's any question about what was there originally.