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

[MechE1]

So, we pump a crazy amount of water out of the sump in our basement. Calculations during normal times figure to be around 25k gallons per day. I've ran the math on that several times. HP/flow vs head vs run time. Regardless of the numerical amount, it is a bunch.
When I bought the place, the sump line was running into a field tile. That silted in, so I ran the line to the ditch along the road. Since that time, it has water standing constantly and is normally a few inches deep. It drains, but only to the point of a few inches depth. Cattails of course.

I would like to be able to utilize the water supply for lawn irrigation, but there is not enough volume in the sump to run a pump. This sort of available volume should provide plenty of water for irrigation with still a bunch to spare. The lot size is 1 acre.

To get a tank to hold a large enough volume of water seems impractical cost and size wise. I've thought about a koi pond, and then pump for irrigation from that. If I made the pond large enough, the volume change would hardly be noticed. Being in central Illinois, this would have to be a lined pond, which I don稚 have an issue with.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of project? A few of the concerns I have:

Pumping to pond: Clearly, I would not put the pond right next to the house. Ideally, it would be about 175 ft. Consider the land level. Some thoughts:

1. Would this distance cause issues with pumping that far?
2. in winter. To prevent freezing it would need to be around 3ft deep. The end would have to exit submerged or into a heated area (not desired).
3. Could I use gravity to move the water? Pump to an elevated pool closer to the house, connect the pond and pool using larger pipe, and let gravity keep it level? This seems possible, and easier for the pump, but not practiced so unsure if it would work as well as envisioned. Worried about low flow (for larger pipe) allowing sediment to clog in time.

I would assume running the pump about an hour a few times a week would do for irrigation. That should be 3500-6000 gal per hour x however many hours.

Looking at getting to this project summer of 2020. A lot of planning for this and if there is testing, etc I'll need to allow the time.

Thanks,
Darren

 

[Industrial Toys]

I only know that I tied putting a sprinkler onto an industrial sump type pump to empty my hot tub and make use of the water, but it would not make pressure. Not designed to do that. So, my guess is that a sump pump will only pump so far up or out.

 

[MechE1]

Good point. I'll clarify. It was implied that a separate irrigation pump would be used, not the sump pump.

 

[4570Man]

If you have enough grade for the gravity feed idea I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I’d use at least a 4” drain pipe to minimize the issue of stopping up. But than pumping down hill with a large diameter pipe shouldn’t put anymore strain on the pump. What about sucking the irrigation water straight from the basement and dumping the rest? Just curious how much does the electric to pump that much water cost?

 

[CalG]

25K per day is 17 gal/min

Size your irrigation pump and delivery to match,

Use a stock tank to buffer the delivery. A float switch to keep from running the irrigation pump dry.

 

[dougtrr2]

You should be able to come up with something. I would be concerned about pumping that much water out of a sump all the time. I think I would have two pumps, one with a battery back up. But I think I would try to figure out how to divert that water before it ever got to the sump. A pump failure while your gone for a long weekend could be catastrophic.

Doug in SW IA

 

[MechE1]

Yep. Have two pumps stacked in case of failure. No point in battery back up really. Would only save in the event I don’t catch it and its only been an hour or so. Otherwise it’s dead. Lucky for us the power rarely goes out and I have an emergency generator. The idea of getting the water before it gets to sump has been considered. But that means an external pump/sump/well with possibly even more issues.

 

[MechE1]

Thought of a stock tank or even a poly tank, but would freeze in winter. I could divert back to ditch in winter, but I would prefer more volume and less irrigation cycling if possible

 

[ruffdog]

If you are pumping that much from the basement every day, I sure wouldn't pump it out to the yard(again). I would be coming up with a way to get it FAR away from your house.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have seen backup pumps fail from lack of use. A high water alarm is always a good idea.