Pipe buildup

[Dutch445]

happened to look in the ditch by the road today, and I
see this gunk at the end of a drainage pipe that I
layed in last summer. I have noticed a bit of
the same colored stuff around that ditch, coming from wherever,
but this was the first time I ever saw it accumulate in
1 place. I took a small stick, and poked it around, it
had the consistency of thin peanut butter, and once
I moved enough of it, the tile started draining off,
as it had backed up a ways I'm sure.
any thoughts? is it an iron product coming from the ground??
oh, and a couple little frogs enjoyed the ride out of the
pipe with the water!

 

[Zick]

Dude, it looks like your pipe took a dump!
I have no idea what it is though.

 

[Dutch445]

Yea,
I'm sure it felt better after I released
that backup!

 

[CrownHawg]

Looks like somebody's been flushing pumpkins!

 

[Western]

That is strange, would be neat to send a little to a lab.

Anyone in the neighborhood missing a cat????

 

[/pine]

If that pipe is not wet all the time...it could be something a mouse or chipmunk or something... stashed up in there (and rotted?)
You might want to put screens over the ends...

 

[Dutch445]

this is an outlet for some drain tile that runs
about 125' up the property. Last summer I only replaced the
last 25' due to it being crushed and plugged
with tree roots. it runs pretty much all year,although
most of the time it's not running much.
i would say this occured in the past month , maybe 6 weeks,
as during mowing season I am more apt to look at the
pipe during trimming etc.

i'm sure it's coming out of the ground, as I have seen other
areas close by with the same coloration. but odd that
it accumulated at this point to the extend that it filled
that pipe for a ways.
my thoughts is it's an Iron concentration, or some other
form of decomposing organic material..... meow

 

[SPIKER]

by chance it there a septic tank in area?
it does not look like anything I have seen slipping out of a tile in these parts that is for sure...

I have several tiles that were/are attached to OLD clay tiles, the clay tiles had to have some extensions by me when they cracked in areas I had drove the tractor. the water flowing out of them in spring and a day or two after a rain they flow like that one of yours 24-7 3/4 full on flow out of a 4" tile. they drain springs and area land into my creek/wash area with water that is crystal clear. Not sure WHO put in the clay tile but I cut through one with my back hoe which was about 5.5' deep I could see the OLD trench (went across the tile) and could see they trenched it about 14~16" wide. appeared to be HAND dug too...

Only thing I can think of is maybe there is a hunk of steel up there? pipe or maybe a digging bar you forgot/left/dropped? could be laying next to the tile in the trench letting the rusty junk migrate into the tile. did you use a steel pipe hunk to join the new & old tiles maybe?

Mark

 

[tallyho8]

Is that a black plastic garbage bag in the photo? Could a garbage bag full of something have gotten in there and stopped it up?

 

[ToadHill]

I've seen some stuff that looked like that in damp areas in the summer. It was a kind of fungus but I've never seen it clogging up a pipe like that.

 

[Dutch445]

this is in the ditch along the road,
septic is way behind the house, and water is usually running
east to west, down hill. no odor that i noticed
when i broke it up today
the black was just a big leaf , looked like plastic or
something else, but just a leaf

the other areas along the ditch that I have
noticed that color are only a few feet away.
i have done some grading along the edge of the
driveway, and took out a cedar stump very close
to where this pipe is. it's just wierd that
it looks like it "grew" at the end of the pipe.

i'll certainly be watching it more closely now though!


what color is frog dump?????

 

[dave1949]

I've seen some stuff that looked like that in damp areas in the summer. It was a kind of fungus but I've never seen it clogging up a pipe like that.

Can't remember seeing anything like it, but I'm with ToadHill, it appears to be some sort of fungus, algae, or slime mold. Maybe something in the drainage is giving it the odd color.

No chance there is something buried or disposed of years ago under that section of land?

Dave.

 

[Pirate]

Dude, it looks like your pipe took a dump!
I have no idea what it is though.

That's funny but I think it is a big growth of fungus.

 

[JB4310]

That's funny but I think it is a big growth of fungus.

That's close,
I'm pretty sure I got this one. It's actually a bacteria called iron ochre and it wreaks havoc on drainage systems, and other ground water systems. I've read about it a couple years ago when trying to educate myself, we just thought it was like a silt, odd to find out "IT's ALIVE".
Guys who drill wells would know about it as they have to be careful there equipment is not contaminated with it going from one job to another.

We come across it in the basement drainage work we do, only a tiny percentage of jobs but we do see it occasionally. it will choke off a pumps discharge line to complete closure, and make footing drain pipes look just like the OP's pics. Don't think it poses a health risk but it is a big nuisance to say the least, has to be mechanically removed, I think bleach helps to prevent it.
We don't even bother trying to clean pipes with it if they can be easily replaced. once in under ground/slab pipes it's pretty much a permanent problem and requires frequent cleaning.

Not trying to scare OP as it sounds like it was just at the end of the pipe, if it was that thick all the way in then you'd have trouble, if it's just landscape drainage then not a big deal.

CIR671/AE026: Iron Ochre And Related Sludge Deposits In Subsurface Drain Lines

Google Image Result for http://www.basementsystems.com/images/iron-ochre.jpg


.

 

[SPIKER]

That's close,
I'm pretty sure I got this one. It's actually a bacteria called iron ochre and it wreaks havoc on drainage systems, and other ground water systems. I've read about it a couple years ago when trying to educate myself, we just thought it was like a silt, odd to find out "IT's ALIVE".
Guys who drill wells would know about it as they have to be careful there equipment is not contaminated with it going from one job to another.

We come across it in the basement drainage work we do, only a tiny percentage of jobs but we do see it occasionally. it will choke off a pumps discharge line to complete closure, and make footing drain pipes look just like the OP's pics. Don't think it poses a health risk but it is a big nuisance to say the least, has to be mechanically removed, I think bleach helps to prevent it.
We don't even bother trying to clean pipes with it if they can be easily replaced. once in under ground/slab pipes it's pretty much a permanent problem and requires frequent cleaning.

Not trying to scare OP as it sounds like it was just at the end of the pipe, if it was that thick all the way in then you'd have trouble, if it's just landscape drainage then not a big deal.

CIR671/AE026: Iron Ochre And Related Sludge Deposits In Subsurface Drain Lines

Google Image Result for http://www.basementsystems.com/images/iron-ochre.jpg


.

DING DING DING we have a WINNER!

 

[Dutch445]

that makes sense, as the area very close to where
this pipe terminates has had signs of the same stuff.

my bigger concern, is when this tile was crushed/closed
the driveway was always wet in that area, but up above, maybe
50', this same drain tile is only 10' or so away from my well.
this drain tile crosses above the ditch where the water line goes
from the well to the house, and i noticed the well was overflowing
with water for a while, which has stopped now that i replaced that
section of tile. while investigating some other water well issues, i
have dropped a nut on a string down the well only to find i had to use
a brass nut because a steel one would attract to the side of the well casing
like a magnet. the brass one would drop down to the bottom, about 45'
down. and, the well casing has this same coloration on the sides. we have hard water, and a new softener as of 2005, but this property has a lot of water running thru it, and this drain tile collects water at the base of a steep
grade going up to the higher neighbors property. rarely do we get standing water, but at the base of that hill, it's always soft ground. that entire pipe
is slated for replacement someday, along with a lateral along the base of
the slope.
so it's hard to say whether this iron is in my well, i have heard of
iron bacteria causing interior plumbing problems. or whether it's just
going to be more evident in the lower half of the property.
nothing inside the house shows that color, so i don't think it's a big
interior plumbing problem. the new hot water heater in 2007 started
smelling (rotten egg/sulfer) until my softener and tank supplier told me to remove the sacrificial
magnesium rod since i was softening the water reducing minerals in the water.

is this all somehow connected?????

 

[jinman]

I've seen some stuff that looked like that in damp areas in the summer. It was a kind of fungus but I've never seen it clogging up a pipe like that.

That's what it looks like to me. I'd bet a big mushroom of some kind grew in the warm and humid environment up that pipe. Since it's dark, moist, and in an area of rotting organics from roots, it seems very possible it is a mushroom growth.

 

[turbo36]

that makes sense, as the area very close to where
this pipe terminates has had signs of the same stuff.

my bigger concern, is when this tile was crushed/closed
the driveway was always wet in that area, but up above, maybe
50', this same drain tile is only 10' or so away from my well.
this drain tile crosses above the ditch where the water line goes
from the well to the house, and i noticed the well was overflowing
with water for a while, which has stopped now that i replaced that
section of tile. while investigating some other water well issues, i
have dropped a nut on a string down the well only to find i had to use
a brass nut because a steel one would attract to the side of the well casing
like a magnet. the brass one would drop down to the bottom, about 45'
down. and, the well casing has this same coloration on the sides. we have hard water, and a new softener as of 2005, but this property has a lot of water running through it, and this drain tile collects water at the base of a steep
grade going up to the higher neighbors property. rarely do we get standing water, but at the base of that hill, it's always soft ground. that entire pipe
is slated for replacement someday, along with a lateral along the base of
the slope.
so it's hard to say whether this iron is in my well, i have heard of
iron bacteria causing interior plumbing problems. or whether it's just
going to be more evident in the lower half of the property.
nothing inside the house shows that color, so i don't think it's a big
interior plumbing problem. the new hot water heater in 2007 started
smelling (rotten egg/sulfur) until my softener and tank supplier told me to remove the sacrificial
magnesium rod since i was softening the water reducing minerals in the water.

is this all somehow connected?????

I have Iron Bacteria in the well at my cottage, it leaves a black slime in the pressure tank and causes the air bladder to deteriorate faster then normal. According to my well man this is common to cottages in my area that have deep wells ( I'm 275') with plain steel pipe that sit idle for awhile. He advises that I should shock the well with bleach a couple of times a year to knock down the bacteria and odor it causes.
I dump 4-5 gallons down the well, let it sit overnight, and then run the water through the house. To purge the chlorine I run the water in as many faucets as I can for a few hours at a time, It takes a couple of days before all the chlorine smell is gone. Once I do this as long as we use the well on a regular basis we don't have a problem for the rest of the summer.

 

[JB4310]

I don't have any experience with it in well water systems, only that I read you can get cross contamination from site to site like I mentioned on the drilling/maintenance equipment.

If you see it in the well casing then You might want to consult with your local well expert to see if there is anything you should be doing to minimize it like turbo36 mentioned.

Hard to tell if it has anything to do with your other yard drainage issues but my guess would be no, probably more due to aged or improperly installed/under built system.

My experience with it in drainage systems is it seems to kinda stay in check, like how ever bad it is when we see it the first time that's how it stays. In other words we'll clean it out and get everything working again and in a couple of years it will be back, but usually to about the same degree, Not like it's spreading like wild fire all over the place. So I don't think it's anything to panic about.

JB.

 

[Oldchuck]

It's iron. Anything that color (the color of rust) is always iron. Question is where is it coming from. I have flowing water that color, although in much lighter concentration, and it must be an upstream iron concentration. Neighbor's well is pretty heavily contaminated by iron deposits at least 200 feet down.

Yours is real rusty looking but it tends to concentrate when sitting in stagnant pools. Maybe you have an old iron mine upstream or maybe it is from some buried junk yard. Depends on what you have upstream.