WHAT'S BEST WAY TO DRAIN [PUMP] OFF GROUND WATER?

[Mmathis]

I'm doing some off-season pond renovations. Pulled back a section of liner the other day in order to dig a little deeper, and instantly ran into ground water. And of course, the more I dug, the more water filled up the hole(s).

I'd love to continue my work, but need to get rid of the water first. It's about 2-3 feet down from ground level. What's the best way to get rid of the water, muddy water, I might add?

We've had an unusually wet fall/winter, so I'm not surprised. We just had foundation work done about a month ago, and they had to use a sump pump to drain the holes they dug -- boy what a mess that was!

And given our history of ground water [even when we dug the pond!], I'm about 99% sure the water isn't from a pond leak.


Here's a pic I took yesterday.

 

[Catfishnut]

Turtle Mom,

I am not sure how well this would work, but it is the first thought that came to mind.

Create a sump from two or more five gallon buckets and a sump pump.

Cut the bottom out of one bucket and attach it to the top of another bucket, duct taping them together ought to work for a temporary purpose. Drill the lower bucket full of small holes, all around the sides and on the bottom for the water to enter while keeping out dirt and sand and most of the mud. Set the sump pump in the bottom of the bucket. Then dig a hole below the water level and set the buckets into it. Then just start pumping the water out through a hose to a low spot away from the excavation area.

This might just draw down the water level down sufficiently in the local area for you to complete your work. I guess it will all depend upon the soil type and how quickly the water refills it. Might have to place two sumps, one on each side of the area.

Catfishnut

 

[Mmathis]

Hey, Gordy, I like that idea! I would try it ASAP, but we've been getting more -- guess what? -- rain! And quite a bit of it, too, so it's going to be a while before I can commence ANY work. Just to see what would happen, I stuck my smallest [IOW, least to be missed....] fountain pump in the water and it drew it out pretty good. I let it run in some clear water afterward, to clean it. Silly me, though, was draining the water pond-side and it occurred to me that I was replenishing the underground supply -- so started filling up buckets. However, will use a LONG hose to drain it FAR away from the pond.

We have clay "soil." When we dug the pond, 2 summers ago, the water table [is that what it's called?], or at least a layer of it was then around 3' down. There were a few spots that constantly leaked a little water into the pond-hole, but since it was dryer then, it was never a problem. In fact, there were a few times when we got some BIG rains before we had the liner in, and were able to pump the water out and it stayed pretty much dry afterward -- slippery, but not wet. There is always a window of opportunity with our soil as far as working with it between too wet & too dry -- that WOO is usually only about a day, maybe 2!

 

[sissy]

The other thing you could do is put in drain tile pipe with the silt sock over it .But since you can't put gravel around it it may clog up fast .I put it around the bottom of my pond and wrapped to layers of the drain fabric around it ,since I could not use gravel either .The water from the back of the property settles in the low area where my pond was built and that is the main reason I could not go any deeper and also why I had to use retaining wall block and build the pond up above ground

 

[Mmathis]

I got my buckets done late this afternoon and gave it a trial run -- looks like it's going to work! I haven't gotten a sump pump yet, but tried one of my small, "fountain" pumps, and it worked well, too! Not fast, but that's OK since the ground water seeps in slowly. It keeps up. So maybe tomorrow I can pump the water level down enough to be able to do some more digging.

 

[Catfishnut]

Excellent! I am glad to hear that it at least appears to be promising.

Gordy

 

[Mmathis]

Once it warms up a little this morning, gonna go out and try to make some progress

 

[Mmathis]

Progress report: So far, so good. I ended up getting a small sump pump from Harbor Freight and that's working good. I've dug out all of the depth that I need to eliminate, so from here it's all a matter of tweaking the contours & edges, leveling, and compacting the soil/clay. There's still water, but it's gradually lessening [every morning when I check, the depth of water has gone down by a quarter to a third from the previous day]. I suspect that this morning will be the last time there will be enough water there to be able to pump out.