Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation?

[MechE1]

What is this thing you call “down hill”. Flat flat flat. I get no water seepage thru wall/floor junction any longer. I’ve worked hard to grade away from the house. Tile is about 10 inches below the basement floor top. Its a clay tile. That’s where the water gets into the sump, and as designed. And yes. Seems that we are “above” an aquifer.

 

[Deere Dude]

I built a house near a pond and the pond was mostly water table height level. Fortunately the foundation was built during one of the rainiest seasons I can recall, so the basement floor was put in about a foot above that water level. The pond level was 4' from ground level in the spring and 12 feet in the winter In the spring the 1/2 hp sump pump still ran about 45 seconds and clicked off for 15 which was still way to much run time for me. I had back-ups, battery and electric. The crock was down a couple feet from the floor. Never flooded, but close when the power went out for an extended time. Ten years later after we moved I got to thinking about it. I had a ditch a couple hundred feet away which I could have just run a drain line and then no sump pump usage.

I would make sure everything was pitched away from the house and look for a low spot someplace that can be drained to. After traveling though the area a number of times, it is very flat. I don't think the basement can be utilized for anything because of the flooding pattern. Have you ever considered raising the house and filling the basement in? It would be expensive and you probably aren't to that point yet.

25k gal a day would seem to much to be trying to find tanks to utilize drain water.

 

[Scrambler82]

Sorry I didn't read all of the posting BUT from what I have read you have a major water problem... 25K/Gal per day !

Just my opinion, you need to locate the source of the water, take care to it at the source. Find it and divert it, that's the name of this game.

Maybe, if it is outside water, do as I did, water drainage system around the foundation and foundation waterproofing.


When I had a water problem in New England, mostly early spring, I found the water source and I provided a path of least resistance by digging a trench adding pipe and stone.
Once you locate your source then you can address HOW to fix it. It may require a full foundation system, pipes and stone and foundation water proofing... but that is just talk until you discover the REAL problem.

As one of the post mentions, collect it, filter it, and sell it for pool water, that's a great idea, a lot of people want pool water and the cost is going up all the time.

p.s. Is the water Potable... can you use it for you own use ?
After you discover the source and IF you can capture it, have it tested.

 

[MossRoad]

Well then, back to your original question about using it for irrigation, why not? :laughing: It's free, since you already paid for the electricity to pump it out.

I'd get a large tank and keep it filled with the sump pump, and get an irrigation pump that can pump out of the new storage tank and pressurize the irrigation system and Bob's your uncle.

You'd probably want some way to switch from summer to winter and back, so some sort of T or diverter in the line to the ditch to select for discharge to ditch or discharge to irrigation tank. And you'd need some sort of overflow line from the tank back to the ditch once the tank is full, correct?

 

[Diggin It]

2500. I wish. It痴 been a long while since I ran the numbers. I値l run them again. Yes. It痴 a big issue. Not a finished basement. Never any water in the basement tho. Except, Only had it flood three times in 14 years. 1 was a pump failure. They should have never built here with a basement.

Have you considered ..... an indoor pool?

 

[DerbyRunner]

Olympic sized.

 

[buickanddeere]

Sump pump is high volume and low pressure.
Could we see the numbers used to calculate the 25,000 gallons ?
Is the house built in a swamp with a full basement ?
Is there a perimeter drain around the outside of the house that was backfilled with drainage stone ?
Is there low land nearby that gravity could flow water to ?

 

[MossRoad]

I'd run the sump pump into a known sized container and time how long it takes to fill it up, or how much came out during the time the pump runs. Then multiply that by how many run times per hour, multiply by 24 and there's your guesstimate.

 

[Fuddy1952]

This is a fascinating although really problematic dilemma. I have so many questions I don't know where to begin.
If it's really 25,000 gallons a day...how much is your electric and water bill???
And that amount...I assume you're on public water, not your own well? If you're on city/county water I would bet quite a bit there's a leak somewhere then flowing into your basement. It certainly could be a leak before your meter so water bill wouldn't show it.
I would take a sample of your tap water and sample of the sump water, have them tested.
I'm on a well, and I just did quick calculations...I only wished for that volume. That's like a gallon every 3.5 seconds!
How much rain have you had? It has to be coming from somewhere. If it's potable as mentioned I'd be tempted to re-do your plumbing a bit so that would be used everywhere except kitchen faucet! You could have a great garden, irrigate your lawn, install your own water tank.
A million gallon water tank you could fill in just over a month!!!!!

 

[MechE1]

Ran a quick small time sample today. Steady ran this AM but not much this week so I would expect that the rain this AM was negligible on impact. Tile is 7 ft down, and not that much rain so it could not have been saturated yet. Calculated to 4hrs run time in a 24 HR period. 3/4 HP pump with a 6ft head. Somewhere around 5000 GPH by the book. So.... 20K gal it is at this point. I'll take more samples and keep a better eye on it through out the next few seasons. I'll be building garages etc next summer so that is the reason for starting investigations on what to do with all this now, to make plans. The best possible scenario is that there is a tile in the area and it's going to be closer to where I want to build (no basement in this building!). If I can "stop" it there and divert, great. That's asking a lot. Even then, it has to go somewhere.

Fuddy….to answer:
Electric is not that much. Not sure what an average is nationally. The average estimate from my provider shows that we are about 20% more than our neighbors, but I have a much larger house, a wife that does not turn off lights, large electric cook top, a 5 ton A/C that I like to run to keep the house cool, and at least 1 PC that runs 100% duty cycle.....so I don't think it's much more than "average". And we have a TON of lights. I guess when you get older, you need more light to see? This is what my wife claims....

No public water. Private well. It never runs dry. No leak from well to surrounding. Well is about 130ft deep (irrelevant) and about 15 ft from the sump. Well equipment is feet from the sump. I replaced the line from the well to the tank in 2009 (because it was leaking) and I'm sure it's not leaking now. The closest public line is 300ft away on the front side of the property which is the lower side (where the road ditch is at).

Interesting suggesting to test on the sump/well water. Not sure what it would show, to see if we use in our faucets safely? Local county health district will test for free, but will not be a full blown test. Just looking for organics I think.

Rain volume is irrelevant for the most part. One time the thing flooded. My stupid fault. Negative 16F outside. I thought I was safe and I was scared the sump line would freeze (still the old into field tile line) so I shut the pump off. No rain for a good month before. Snow, and ice. A seriously hard freeze. Come home to a flooded basement. With long heavy rain periods, I see an increase in volume for sure. But, I would say +/- 25% at min/max times. We've had a couple droughts since I've lived here. Ditch never was fully dry, but came close which means I was not pumping that much. Cattails never died tho.

Yes, great garden and lawn. You see where I'm going with this. With the construction I want to do next year, if I need/want to run lines and such, it would be the time to do it.

I'm a bit amazed at the attention this thread is getting. I will for sure keep posting what I find. Seems people could learn from it besides myself!