About James Grote Expertise Questions concerning irrigation, sprinkler systems, water pressure,backflow preventers, and drainage would be best. Questions about individual plants or shrubs are best left to others.
Experience
Past/Present clients Edward Jones Dome, Christian Hospitals, Barnes-Jewish Hosptials,St. Anthony's Hospital, St.Lukes Hospital Bellerive Country Club, Normandy Golf Course, Emerson Electric, and residential.
Irrigation - Using Excess Groundwater for Irrigation
Expert: James Grote - 9/6/2006
Question Hi Jim,
We're in the Chicago area in a new construction home. We have a sump pump that runs continually in wet weather and approximately every 2-3 minutes in dry. The water table is obviously very high, and some even guess that we're on an underground spring.
We would like to make lemonade from these lemons. What kind of storage/distribution system could we put in place to allow us to use this excess groundwater in our landscaping? We obviously still have great access to the water even during dry spells, so I'm really against just tying the line into the storm sewer.
We do have some room in the basement for a storage system if that is practical. We would like to set up a micro-irrigation system for plantings that are both slightly downhill and slightly uphill of the current sump ejection location.
Thanks for any experience you can share in this matter.
Answer Aimee,
I don't know if there is enough water coming out of the sump pump to do anything. You really need hundreds a gallons of water to make it worth you while ther. try to get an estimate of how much water the pump will give you per day or hour or minute. Then get back to me and we'll see if we can figure out what you can do with that amount of water. Jim
