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

   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation? #51  
If the OP could determine if the aquifer is flowing in a specific direction, he might be able to intercept it upstream of his house and divert it. However, if it's like the area I live in, there's just water everywhere. It's about impossible to divert. All you can do is build a boat of a basement so the house floats, or like they do out on the flats of the former Grand Kankakee Marsh is built the house higher above the watershed and then mound dirt up around the basement walls that are sticking out of the ground 4-5'.

Yes, in fact here in Colorado in the mountain valleys we have our own version of the Grand Kankakee Marsh. Snow melt runs off the mountains and during the summer the ground water in the valleys rises to the top of the soil. So when we built our house we built on top of a compacted dirt mound that we built up especially for the house. It was two feet above grade. Then in that mound we dug and put the foundation down to bedrock - about 8 feet below original grade.

I thought I had covered all the bases, but then the flood came. It deposited sand and gravel for miles and now my house is slightly below the new grade.... and the new water level is now where the old ground surface grade level was before the flood. It's been a lesson in how geology forms valleys.....
rScotty
 
   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation? #52  
Did I understand it takes about 2 hours for sump to fill when power out? If I did not interpret that correctly the following is not relevant.

If so a 2 foot by 2 foot sump 16 inches deep would be a little less than 6 cubic feet of water. At 7.48 gallons per cubic foot would be around 45 gallons in 2 hours. Would be 20 or so gallons per hour instead of per minute. Still a lot but more manageable than 25000 per day.

Maybe install a well outside the house to draw down water table to at least keep water out of house?

There must be a lot more storage area. Or the OPs claims exponentially exaggerated. Thats under 500 gallons a day assuming the pit was empty when the timer started which it probably wasn’t. And he claimed the pumps had to run a long time to catch up with the 2 hour delay. The 2 pumps should empty a 40 gallon pit in a couple minutes. 2 pumps each one capable of handling the original claimed amount would empty a 40 gallon pit in seconds.
 
   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation? #53  
Many times the sump pit is not sealed so actually when the pit fills, so does all the area under the foundation. My pit fills quickly until it reaches the bottom of the hose openings, then, it is filling the entire area under the house.
 
   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation? #54  
Many times the sump pit is not sealed so actually when the pit fills, so does all the area under the foundation. My pit fills quickly until it reaches the bottom of the hose openings, then, it is filling the entire area under the house.
Exactly.

Aaron Z
 
   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation? #55  
There must be a lot more storage area. Or the OPs claims exponentially exaggerated. Thats under 500 gallons a day assuming the pit was empty when the timer started which it probably wasn’t. And he claimed the pumps had to run a long time to catch up with the 2 hour delay. The 2 pumps should empty a 40 gallon pit in a couple minutes. 2 pumps each one capable of handling the original claimed amount would empty a 40 gallon pit in seconds.

I'm scratching my head on that one, too. ;)
 
   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation? #56  
Many times the sump pit is not sealed so actually when the pit fills, so does all the area under the foundation. My pit fills quickly until it reaches the bottom of the hose openings, then, it is filling the entire area under the house.


So the pit is just a low spot under the entire basement slab? Hmm.... around here, they put perimeter drains around the inside and outside of the foundation footing, and run them into the sump pit.
 
   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation? #57  
So the pit is just a low spot under the entire basement slab? Hmm.... around here, they put perimeter drains around the inside and outside of the foundation footing, and run them into the sump pit.

The pit is just the collection point for the tubes and a convenient spot for the pump to sit.
 
   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation?
  • Thread Starter
#58  
Right. Imagine the entire perimeter of tile with rock around it and it sits 12 or so inches below top of slab. All that volume is going to fill with water until it’s full and the it will start to breach the top of sump first and well up and over.
 
   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation? #59  
Right. Imagine the entire perimeter of tile with rock around it and it sits 12 or so inches below top of slab. All that volume is going to fill with water until it’s full and the it will start to breach the top of sump first and well up and over.

OK. It sounds like a typical system and high ground water. I have the same situation. You said, "consider the ground to be flat." But how flat is it? I wonder if there is even the slightest drop to that ditch that you say runs along the road.... It wouldn't take much.

After pumping for years, I did a careful elevation survey and found that my ditch along the road was about 100 feet away and the water level in the ditch was actually about a foot and a half lower than the center of my sump pit. That was enough drop to run a buried pipe from the side of the sump pit to the ditch and let gravity drain the water. It worked. Not a very fast flow, but consistent. Yes, we still have high ground water on most of our land, but at least I don't have to run pumps under the house anymore.
rScotty
 
   / Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation?
  • Thread Starter
#60  
The whole property drops 26 inches over 330ft back to front. Ditch is about 20-ish inches deep from grade
 

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