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

[Diggin It]

There are small lakes near me that are very high now.

They flooded with all the rains in 2008 and stayed high for 4 more years. Now it is even worse.

We've noticed the same thing where we live. The big flood here was 6 years ago, but the ground water is still a lot higher than it used to be.

Cairo, IL has been above Flood Stage for 133 days straight this year, going back to February.

Cape Girardeau, MO has been above Flood Stage for 100 days.

 

[MossRoad]

We were there last fall, right where the rivers meet. I imagine that park is underwater now.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Someone brought up a good point which is if the water table is that high, how does that affect sewer drain fields? Wouldn't that also contaminate well water? It seems to me that would also contaminate and pond put in.

 

[rScotty]

Someone brought up a good point which is if the water table is that high, how does that affect sewer drain fields? Wouldn't that also contaminate well water? It seems to me that would also contaminate and pond put in.

High ground water can make septic fields more efficient - but it also contaminates the water table in the process. It's a known problem without any real good solutions. A few small towns are wrestling with it right now. But more seem to be trying to ignore it.
rScotty

 

[MossRoad]

Someone brought up a good point which is if the water table is that high, how does that affect sewer drain fields? Wouldn't that also contaminate well water? It seems to me that would also contaminate and pond put in.

The well might be punched down to a deeper aquifer to avoid surface water contamination, too.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Where we live it's on top of a hill. My well is down 85ft. If you walk way down over the hill on my place is a nice spring. Judging elevation it's about 85 ft. down from well house. Spring is shown on an 1840 plat.
I always thought that spring is overflow from our well. The water is great tasting.
I also wondered after a rain how far down it can go. A heavy rain it looks like rivers across pasture going down to the creek.

 

[buickanddeere]

If I was stuck building a house in a swamp. There would be truck loads of drainage stone hauled in until the house was on a hill with the basement footings above the water table .
As others have stated. Dig a trench around the house down to below the footing level. add drain tile and a sump plus pump outside the house. Stop the water prior to it's reaching the basement walls or basement floor.

 

[Diggin It]

Dig a trench around the house down to below the footing level ...

.. then leave it open and let it fill. Then get a dragon. Or at least an alligator. Maybe Piranha.

 

[PILOON]

My house was self built 23 years ago and I did make a sump provision but never needed it.
This spring something happened as a vein opened up somewhere and I now have a pump that needs to run about every hour or so.
I'm OK as the foresight and provisions handle the present situation.
My concern is a power failure situation as we do have our fair share.
If I'm home I can fire up the genset to handle that.
I don't wish to upgrade to an automatic genset due to costs so am studying alternate solutions.

I might go battery with a 'tender' as well as a 12 volt pump.
It so happens that I have a 12 volt RV pump on hand but need to look up the GPM specs.
The battery and tender charger is no problem as I have both of those items.

 

[rScotty]

My house was self built 23 years ago and I did make a sump provision but never needed it.
This spring something happened as a vein opened up somewhere and I now have a pump that needs to run about every hour or so.
I'm OK as the foresight and provisions handle the present situation.
My concern is a power failure situation as we do have our fair share.
If I'm home I can fire up the genset to handle that.
I don't wish to upgrade to an automatic genset due to costs so am studying alternate solutions.

I might go battery with a 'tender' as well as a 12 volt pump.
It so happens that I have a 12 volt RV pump on hand but need to look up the GPM specs.
The battery and tender charger is no problem as I have both of those items.

Much the same as what happened to us, but the cause was a flood and ther re-routing of a local stream. About 4 years ago our water table raised so we had to have the sump pump running every hour to keep from having water in the basement. Ours is not a completely sealed traditional basket construction basement; ours is made of deep perimeter walls that go down to bedrock and then the basement backfilled with dirt. Apparently the seal to bedrock is not perfect everywhere. But when we built it that was a drainage advantage. It didn't become a problem until the water table rose. Anyway, we ended up with the same concerns you have about power and two more thngs you might not have thought of.......one being that that we were going through a lot of pumps, and the second being that we got tired of listening to the pump cycling every hour.

We eventually found a better brand of 110volt pump and also put in a second sump. Solving problems with back up systems isn't a true solution but it worked for awhile. Doing that still left us vulnerable to power outage, the pumping noise, and the energy cost. Also, the better quality pumps lasted longer, but not forever.

Two years ago I finally put put french drains on each side of the foundation walls. The french drains along the inner walls of the foundation were at at level lower than the bottom of the sumps, and gravity along drained all these french drains into a single "master sump" out out in the yard at the lowest elevation still conveniently close to the house. The master sump then drains by gravity through underground pipes going to a creek a few hundred feet away.

The whole project was labor intensive, but not much for materials. The total drainage rate at the creek outlet is about 5 gallons/minute and entirely by gravity. The drainage slope varies, but is alway between 1 and 2 %. That's is a drop of about 1.5 feet in every 100 feet.
That's not much drop, but it's all we have available. I surveyed really carefully to find it. The problem the OP has is that he has even less slope available.
good luck,
rScotty