Drainage Problems

Many year ago we spent about $8,000 on a new lawn and a solution to the drainage off the bank at back of the house. A natural underground spring had broken through the bank and was sending a small but steady stream of water down the bank. We called in an expert and he brought in a Bobcat and installed drain tile covered with gravel along the bottom of the bank and joined it up with the parameter drain which went in a buried pipe down the driveway to the ocean.

This worked well for many years but the flow of the creek has increased steadily over the years and has split into two separate streams, both handled by the drainage system.

Until two days ago when we had torrential rain. The mud being washed down the bank plugged up the drain pipe and the water from one of the two streams flowed across the lawn and down the driveway. Half the pipe is now filled with dirt and gravel. Luckily the part leading down to the ocean is good.

I don't know what to do. I could maybe buy a flexible piece of plastic pipe and try to "ram" the plug out and hope that with a lot of water from the hose, it makes it's way to the ocean. The downside of this is that it may just move the plug to where it could plug the drainage from the other (larger) stream as well. That would be a disaster.

Norma found the guy who did the job in the first place and he is still doing drainage. He is coming over this afternoon to see what can be done. Our lawn guys say we are not the only people with drainage problems right now.