Can you drain a perched water table? 1

[JoniLaw]

***I am not an engineer but I need help*** I work in a very small municipality and we have water seeping up from the ground at a residence. We have tested the water for chlorine to make sure it is not coming from a rouge water line. I was doing some research and see that it might be from a perched water table. Our town sits on a ridge, in Texas where the ground moves a lot so I am thinking this might be what is causing the standing water. I need to know if there is a way to drain the perched water table so our resident does not have standing water in their yard? Or do we need to install a type of drain since the perched table will always be there on top of the aquatard? Please advise! Thank you.

 

[1503-44]

The County may have some answers. Messing with water in TX is usually not a good idea. If you drain it, someone's stream or stock pond might run dry. Trouble with a capital T!

If its small and limited to that property and continuously recharged, a sump pump might do it.

 

[EireChch]

How long is a piece of string?

You need to drill a borehole and install a piezometer to find out if it is perched or not.

I have never heard of anyone draining a watertable, for a residential purpose. I imagine all sorts of permits, assessments are required and even at that I doubt it will be ok.

You could have an artesian groundwater condition, it may never drain.

If you manage to drain it, you will be inducing settlement of some magnitude over some unknown area of land. Could affect your house and your neighbours house and so on

 

[SlideRuleEra]

I need to know if there is a way to drain the perched water table so our resident does not have standing water in their yard?

In the South Carolina Lowcounty (year round high water table), this problems in not solved, it is managed. A french drain, if there are a few inches of elevation change, will "move" the standing water from a location that is not acceptable to a different location that does not create a problem.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net