If the grass dies every year, where does the new grass come from? What kind of grass are you talking about?

I guess it doesn't all die, but some of it does, and we have added some seed. It's a tall fescue mix of some sort that is supposed to be good for this area and was recommended to me as somewhat drought resistant. It's the ashen look it gets in just these areas so quickly this time of year. If I water it every day, I'm afraid it will start to have other problems.

A more accurate title would have been "The Grass is Always Greener Over a Leaking Septic Tank".

-Deerslayer

This is the only case I have heard of where the problem is poor growth over the drain field of a septic tank; usually it is the other way around. It may be worth your time to find out if the septic tank is working satisfactorily.

The grass over my septic tank dries out more quickly than the grass surrounding it. That's normal if the tank is not leaking.

When it's really hot and dry, you can see the outline of my septic tank access cover from the dry grass. My cover is about 6" below the surface of my lawn.

-Deerslayer

You have fescue and it dies? or it doesn't? If it dies where does the new grass come from? Are you overseeding or something?

I've never heard of a fescue that had any drought resistance. How often are you watering and for how long? Is there any shade involved in this?

I have the same problem here in CT.

To nice rows of brown (i.e dormant) grass every July/Aug.

My issue is that when it goes dormant, with the kids playing on it, some if it gets torn up. So in the spring I have nice grass with two rows of patchy grass...and in the summer, two nice rows of brown grass with patches of clay inbetween.

I'v tried reseeding, but it wont take.

I'm thinking of putting down a couple of in of compost.

Any suggestions?

I don't know why the idea that fescue has poor drought tolerance often persists. It was one of the main reasons that I planted it over bluegrass myself. It is not tolerant relative to buffalograss by any means but has a much deeper root system than the typical bluegrass you usually find around here. It might not come back from the dead like bluegrass seems to after a month or so of drought / no water and it is not quite as cold tolerant but I have actual data to back me up, sorry my links weren't coming up:

Drought tolerance ratings for bluegrass:
http://www.ntep.org/data/kb05/kb05_08-2/kb0508t23.txt
for fescue:
http://www.ntep.org/data/tf06/tf06_08-1/tf0608t25.txt

and from tallfescue.com : "The fact that it stays green all year makes it more acceptable as a lawn grass. It has a dense root system and therefore a great tolerance to drought conditions. The older varieties are coarser textured and wear well. Kentucky 31 tall fescue is one of the more popular varieties planted throughout the USA. Fescue performs best in heavier soil with a lot of organic matter and grows in a large area of the USA as shown in the fescue-adaptation map for Tall Fescue below."

Any sandy (large particle) soil is going to do that.

For exa., Areas that had erosion problems in the past and a lot of sand washed into an area. Even though it is covered with top soil that spot always turns in the hot sun. Subsoil sand is generally devoid of organic matter and are larger particles than what was above it.
So if the contractor dug it out and replaced the top soil with that sand, you may be looking at a do over.

I was curious about this so did a google search - lots of reading ahead for you - not an uncommon problem.

HTH, Rosie

Here is a link that might be useful: Grass dies over septic tank

Cool season grasses, the type grown in zone 5, are genetically programmed to go dormant, not die, during the normally hot and dry summer months. Often that dormant grass looks like it did die. We keep our lawns green during those times with lots of water, and often lots of pollution causing fertilizers.
What can help is to add lots of organic matter to the sandy soil which can help hold moisture in the soil. Sometimes people will state that the grass over the septic tank will be greener, grow faster and thicker, but if that does happen there is a problem and that tank is leaking. Where the drain field is the grass, because of the soil moisture levels might be greener and grow beter, or it may not depending on how fast the effluent moves through the soil.

We have the same problem here in Virginia. We have a new home build and our drain field is in the front of our home. We closed on the house in July which was steaming hot and therefore nothing absolutely nothing grew that the builder put down except some weeds in our front yard. This fall we put down top soil on both the front and the back yards and picked each and every weed out of the front. We planted Leesco seeds and our back yard is stunning. However our front yard is still a hot mess. The yard is patchy and over the drain field barely no grass. It is almost like the Leesco grass did not grow at all but the seeds the builder put down (which is full of weeds) grew but again patchy. Not sure what to do or our we expecting a miracle that won't happen? We have seeded it at least twice.