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

[rScotty]

The whole property drops 26 inches over 330ft back to front. Ditch is about 20-ish inches deep from grade

Hmm.... Such a small slope does make it difficult; not impossible. I wonder if it is possible to deepen the ditch itself? Even a foot would help where you enter the ditch..... I assume that the house itself is in the center of the property? With that small of a drop, knowing the exact drop from somewhere within the middle of the sump pit to the bottom of the ditch is necessary since that is probably the worst case.

For very low flows to work by gravity you would prefer to have smooth wall pipe (PVC) of rather large diameter (6" to 8" probably). You might also want to do what I did - which is to put in additional covered sump pits every 50 feet or so. These I can use for inspection of the flow and also as access for cleaning each 50 feet of drain pipe if needed. And each one could have become a secondary pumping station if I had made a mistake or the pipe settled in the ground or some other unforseeable problem cropped up.

Getting the water from the sump pit to the next inspection sump pit located just past the perimeter of the foundation was the most difficult part for us. I actually ended up with of a series several connected pits under the house to get to that point and all had to be hand dug - some of it by laying in a hole - in the water - just outside the foundation and reaching by hand under the foundation.. Ugly. I hired a young guy and paid him very well for a week of that! Ours is a perimeter foundation; a slab would be more difficult. But anything can be done if you have slope.

I also "spent" a lot of my meager store of available slope in that underhouse area so that I could use smaller (2" PVC) to get the water out to the first outside pit .... which was located just past the perimeter of the foundation. Once there, things were easier. From there I could use a backhoe and larger diameter pipe. And because when digging with the hoe I could see the flow in the bottom of the ditch I was digging, maintaining the slope was much easier too.
rScotty

 

[MechE1]

Hmm. Interesting. Thanks. Sadly the ditch depth is set. Long story, but the box drain that goes under the interstate is not low enough. Ditch has constant amount/level of water. The ditch goes about 500 FYI the west, under my road, then off to the north ditch of the freeway, back east for a couple hundred feet. South Under the the big road and then off to a drainage ditch to the far west.

 

[MechE1]

I’ll get some pictures worked up and post them along with cycle times and more data. I chased down the old tile line that silted the old discharge. It runs to the property line and thru the neighbors yard. Not saying that is the culprit, but if it were what to do? Cut and put a hole with a pump there? Still have to do something with the water. That line is 35 inches deep at the line.

 

[ruffdog]

Because Champaign County is situated on a large and very flat plateau, it had virtually no natural drainage, so that much of the County consisted of wetlands until drainage ditches were built, beginning in the 1870s. This was an example of an upland marsh, which resulted in a high incidence of malaria before the late nineteenth century.

The topography of Champaign County was formed by the Wisconsin Glacier about 20,000 years before the present. Lobes of ice from what is now Lake Michigan crossed the county, creating a deep pile of glacial soil, up to 300 feet thick, topped by numerous moraines forming small, flat watersheds with no outlets.

 

[rScotty]

Hmm. Interesting. Thanks. Sadly the ditch depth is set. Long story, but the box drain that goes under the interstate is not low enough. Ditch has constant amount/level of water. The ditch goes about 500 FYI the west, under my road, then off to the north ditch of the freeway, back east for a couple hundred feet. South Under the the big road and then off to a drainage ditch to the far west.

Yikes! Another challenge... And yours is already more challenging than mine was....

I'm also slope-limited because the ditch becomes a culvert that passes under a paved road, and the fact that the ditch itself has so little slope that it often has standing water. I did spend some time "improving" the part of the ditch that is on my land to try to increase the flow .....and in the process widened it a few feet in a few places to see if that would help - but didn't accomplish much.

At one time I thought about putting in a small deep pond along the lower edge of our property just so I could get more slope from the house, but it turned out not to be necessary. I even looked into windmills....after all, it worked in Holland. In areas where flow was higher, there are still the old-fashioned flow drive impulse pumps that work although noisy and low volume.

But as long as you have any slope at all, something other than pumping is still possible.
rScotty

 

[aczlan]

I’ll get some pictures worked up and post them along with cycle times and more data. I chased down the old tile line that silted the old discharge. It runs to the property line and thru the neighbors yard. Not saying that is the culprit, but if it were what to do? Cut and put a hole with a pump there? Still have to do something with the water. That line is 35 inches deep at the line.

Is this an incoming water to your property, or outgoing to the neighbor's?
If its outgoing, you might see if the neighbor would let you re-dig through their property (on your dime) to a lower point?

Aaron Z

 

[MechE1]

No idea on flow direction. Would not be able to figure this out without digging and pumping. This is the line that clogged and I had to abandon. So, clearly one end of the line goes to the neighbors. The other, I have no idea if it terminates at the old sump line connection or if it wyes off in other direction(s).

 

[hawkeye08]

Friend has constant water in basement sump, he irrigates his pasture with the water. No idea what he does with it in the winter.

 

[shooterdon]

I am not wasting time to read the whole thread but I question your calculation. 25k gallons a day does not sound plausible.

 

[buickanddeere]

The sump, drains and pump should be outside of the house and keep the water table around the house below the level of the footings . All a sump pump indoors should be for backup if the outside pump fails .