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Neil- A little personal experience: I have a basement apartment I rent out that used to have a water problem, as most basement apartments in the Old City do. I had a sump pump installed. Originally it went into the sewer system but I later diverted it. The small pump I use is rated 2200 gallons per hour at 10' lift and 3300 at 0 lift. This pump would often be on for an hour total a day after a heavy rain. Each emptying of the sump well would dispose of 50-100 gallons. By contrast a modern water saver toilet flush takes 1.6 gallons.

Very near me a 2-story below ground garage was built as part of a high rise. During construction I saw the two telephone booth size pumps that were installed. I can hear walking by when they work and during the past year they have been on as much as off. I joke with workers about them and they indicate they are often on. That's a huge surface that while not permeable before, also wasn't 40' deep.

Since the construction none of us in my row have had any need for our sump pumps as the water level has obviously gone done drastically. It also has caused the earth to compact to the point that huge cracks in the alley and my patio have appeared. The explanation we get is that the ground water removal has indeed compacted the earth.

There are other close-by projects that are experiencing the same or worse ground water problems. I would imagine that most of the underground garages in the K Street area would have at least similar problems.

People don't talk about how much ground water they are disposing of for free into the sewer system after heavy rains.

by Tom Coumaris on Jun 23, 2012 9:02 pm • link • report