None of that makes sense. How on earth did you even get a permit to drain pesticide laden drainage into a stream??? The whole thing sounds illegal and unpermitted.

Under the Clean Water Act, there are usually requirements to get proper permits and inspections for compliance to drain water from your your property into a tidal river. All tidal rivers are identified as U.S Waters. It is a Federal law. What type of drain is it coming from your house? If you are draining water containing cleaners, solvents, wastewater, you are on shaky ground. Could be very expensive. My husband is retired from the EPA and worked with Congress on the Clean Water Act.

Also, if the detritus on the other side of the fencing is yours, that could be illegal as well should it enter the waterway.The Army Corps of Engineers could get you for that under other laws.

The Clean Water Act was passed on October 18, 1972.

Thanks to all the responses. I can see that my explanation was not very thorough. This is the drainage from a whole-house drainage and sump pump system put in by CT Basement Systems around 1995 (owners before us so the date is a guess on my part). The drainage pipe they installed extends from inside the basement underground to the edge of the river. The street we live on is at the bottom of a hill sloping down to a tidal river. (This river, actually classified as a stream, tapers and ends about a few miles in from the coast.) All of the ground water coming down the hill above us eventually flows into people's yards and homes on our street, so many neighbors have used this company's services ... some as recently as two years ago. One neighbor who could not afford such a long drainage pipe has the extension pipe coming up to the ground about 12 feet from their house. A stream has been created in their back yard and it now flows down towards the river. We are absolutely concerned about keepng the "river" clean for our wildlife and winged population. We don't fertilize plantings in the gardens. We cut and dig up invasives & have been battling one small crop of Japanese knotweed and encroaching phragmites for years with cutting back at certain times..

You would still have a discharge pipe there... it would just be buried under gravel. Roots can grow into gravel as well as dirt. I would suggest a couple other options... remove the plants that keep invading your pipe. A PITA, I know. Or, get a hold of a roto-rooter service that does discharge lines like that and get them to ream the line every year or two.

Aside from that. Were those concrete bricks upright when they were set? Because it looks like you are having a water mitigation issue that is pushing the whole gravel area out. Instead of trying to rebury or regravel, perhaps consider something to slow or disperse out the pipe. A rain garden, a swirl channel or multi-basin channel, a french drain sort of dispersement, or the like.

You say whole house drainage and sump pump. What do you mean by whole house drainage?

"Basement drainage" and "sump pump" means underground water. Water infiltrating the ground from rain, snow, and the water table. Nothing wrong with mitigating that.

To avoid problems with roots and the discharge being backwashed and filled:

- Use rigid 4" Sewer&Drain PVC pipe with S&D fittings. Glue joints. Make sure it has some slope downward towards discharge to avoid pooling. Roots can travel underground, say 30' to a pipe with standing water, which if you have black corrugated pipe is the worst offender for that and allowing root entry and clogging. I can't tell if that pipe is strictly a Sched40 PVC 1 1/2" pipe direct from your sump pump.

- A drywell sounds like what you are proposing (a big stone fill at the end of pipe). I would not recommend that here, as being so close to a river basin means the water table fluctuates, and the soil fines move a lot (either very sandy or silty). So the drywell may not dissipate water quick enough, and roots and fines may fill that drywell sooner than anticipated.

- Discharge your pipe onto grade. This would accomplish a few good things. It won't clog from backwash and fill. You can rod it if necessary, and monitor that water is in fact flowing from such a long distance from the house. Most importantly, you can set the discharge point at least 3' to 10' back (most jurisdiction's requirements) from your back property line which allows the discharge water a chance to infiltrate the ground and naturally enter the water table rather than directly draining into the river and/or causing erosion.

Beesneeds, weren't here when the system was put in, but I believe it was a kind of "French drain" system put into the flooring around the inside perimeter of the basement. Later, the basement was refinished into a living area by previous owners. Basement Systems put in this original system. It included a sump pump that collect all the water from the drains and then pumped it under the floor to a second pump installed inside the floor by the back wall. This second pump discharged the water out of the house through a pipe in the foundation wall. The piping went all the way down to the edge of the river.

Yes, those bricks were upright. We put them in about 15 years ago. I'll share your suggestions w/my husband who also believes that the water is pushing out the gravel area. I'lI pass along suggestions as to what should be done and what kind of company/person could do any of the work.

Hi moliep! CT Basement Systems did my basement as well, so I have an idea of what you are talking about. Like your neighbor, my pump discharges (up and out) through a pipe to about 12-15 feet away from my house at ground level. My front yard is fairly level though. When you say a stream was created in your neighbor's yard, do you mean on purpose, to channel the water? Or was the stream caused over time by the force of the discharged water?

I ask because I *think* I follow what 3onthetree is saying, although I don't understand some of the words (sounds like s/he's in the business lol!). Anyway, it sounds like they are saying to pretty much do what your neighbor did - discharge the pump a distance away from the water (towards your house) so the discharge can go into the ground and filtrate instead of going directly into the water. I could be wrong and apologize if so, but without having a knowledge of the physics of this, this way would seem to make sense, for a few reasons.

However, my one hesitation is that neighbor's stream. If your whole backyard (and your neighbor's) is a slope, perhaps the "stream" was caused by the erosion of the discharge. If so, (as opposed to creating it on purpose) I guess this isn't any better a solution (and perhaps worse) than an underground pipe.

It seems to me that beesneeds has some logical-sounding ideas. Honestly, I would call back CT Basement Systems and see what they have to say. I have found their customer service to be pretty good (they adjusted a few things when they first put our system in without hesitation). You might have to pay for any changes by this time, but I would start with them since they know their system, and they may have some (newer) ideas on how to re-rig it so it works better for you.

Good luck!

:)

Dee