Mystery water entering sump pump basin

[Alexander Dobert]

Hello. I have a friend who lives in a low lying area and has two sump pumps and one of them is running constantly. More accurately, water is enter the basin constantly. It is from one black corrugated pipe. It's a slow trickle of clear water that looks as though it's coming straight from their water pipe as it's not dirty or cloudy at all. But his water meter does not move and his monthly bill is normal. My worry is that the pump is working harder than it should as it is running every 10 minutes or so and also there is a far greater danger of flooding if the electricity goes out since that water does not stop. Has anyone seen something like this? Could it be coming from the main before it hits the meter? Could there be some sort of underwater source that the pipe is drawing from? Any ideas on what we could check to try and diagnose? The attached image shows the relative location of the two sumps and the direction of the pipes that are coming into the basin with the issue. Any advice or insight is greatly appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Jeff Handy]

It is probably ground water, just normal rain water stored in the clay soil.

Without being on site, there are too many possibilities to try to diagnose it.

The area outside that collects water probably needs to be regraded, to shed water away.
Probably with more dirt brought in to create more slope.

And downspouts probably need to be extended farther from the house.

Gutters might be clogged and water pouring over.

There could be an underground spring from a naturally high water table.

Or there could be a stream or creek nearby, which is leaking his way underground, into his foundation drain.

 

[Alexander Dobert]

Thanks Jeff! The sitting water on the side of the house is definitely something that needs to be addressed. I think they are looking into drywells and that is something that is going to happen within the next month or so. My best guess is an underwater creek or something since it trickles at a constant rate even days after it has rained. Also, the main is coming into the house from the other side (the right side of the drawing near the other sump) so the likelihood of it being city water is slim to none. I suppose we can do a ph or chlorine test to see if the water is the same/similar to the water that is coming into the house. Thanks again.

 

[Jeff Handy]

If the water main is leaking underground, before the meter, the water could travel around the foundation and enter the pit on the other side.

 

[JG plumbing]

I have actually done this on purpose before. The building was built with the back side abutting a large hill. The water would flow from above, run, down his building and heave the concrete floors. We dug down and installed a perforated tile along the back and tied it, through the back wall into a sump pit. I couldn't convince the guy to let us dig up more parking lot and tie it into the storm drainage system. So he pumped the ground water out of the sump. It ran constantly. I haven't seen him for a while, but as far as I know the system still works. He did say it eventually stopped running constantly. But yes the power outage thing is a real negative. If it were mine, and I was stuck with this, I'd have a backup devised.