It's just a pipe mom

[Dobela]

Son, what are you playing with out in the pasture?

DS: a pipe

Me: a pipe? it looks like wood (I'm yelling thru the rain across the yard).

 

Finally ds comes in from the rain: Mom, it is just one of those white pipes. I guess the dirt washed out around it and well I pulled it out of the ground. I think it may have been attached to something because I had to twist it to get it out. There was water coming out of it before I pulled it out. Do you think that is where our spring started?

 

ME: You pulled it out of the ground without asking? Where?

 

DS: Oh, I can't remember now. I filled the hole back with the mud.

 

 

OK, hive. Calm me down here. Please.

 

We just moved here last October and I have no clue what was attached to that pipe or that it even existed. We have had so much rain the last 2 weeks that ourback yard is saturated and we are having mini mud slides. The previous owners cleared that back part and put up fencing for horses and goats. That is where the pipe was found. It is PVC pipe about 4 ft long. Nothing that I can tell was ever out there. He says it was found horizontal.

 

What do I need to look for or know as soon as the rain stops?

[Liz CA]

:lol: Sorry, not to discount your panic! If it's a vital water line you would know by now. It could be something that was capped off. Is the pipe open on both ends? Did ds screw off one end or was it open when he twisted it off the part that was in the ground?

If the line is pressurized, the mud he filled in will perhaps squirt out again. Once your floodwaters recede, you will have a much better idea of what is *out* there.

:lol: Um...sorry, I am still laughing.

[Tap]

I could have been there to manage water run off. If it is close by a home, it could have been attached to the gutters to discourage water from accumulating by the house.

 

Old irrigation lines, that were plumbed to a natural spring are another idea.

 

It could also be old sprinklers system line that is attached to water source. You may want to contact the owner just in case the water bill shoots through the roof....

 

 

Was it attached at one end or both ends?

 

 

I would go out an look for his muddy foot prints to see if you locate the hole.

[Karen in CO]

When I first started reading this I was picturing a tobacco other type of pipe. When I got to the part that it was 4' long, I :lol:.

 

I agree that if it were important, you'd know already.

[Barry Goldwater]

Drainage tile?

[Dobela]

Ah, sigh. Kids, Monday, it hasn't been a great day LOL

 

Ok, he slid the pipe back in the ground where he found it and now tons of water is pouring from it. It looks like a faucet turned on full blast. I didn't see the end he slid in but the exposed end is just plain and looks as though nothing was attached before. We never saw it before and I think that we are only seeing it now thanks to rain washing away the side of the small hill it is coming out of.

 

The pipe is 4 inches in diameter, maybe 5. We have had probably a foot of rain in the last week. It is about 100ft from the back of our house and 250 from the house behind us.

 

I don't know how to contact the previous owner.

[Amy in NH]

I think that we are only seeing it now thanks to rain washing away the side of the small hill it is coming out of.

 

The pipe is 4 inches in diameter, maybe 5. We have had probably a foot of rain in the last week. It is about 100ft from the back of our house and 250 from the house behind us.

 

 

 

I used to own a property that had one of those. It was a drain from the street-side of the yard that ran under the yard and came out on the side of the (steep) hill that descended on the other side of the property. It was there to keep the whole backyard from washing out, as it did after I moved out when ex didn't bother to keep the drain clear; It washed out and totally exposed the septic tank.

[gardening momma]

I would guess it's a drainage pipe for runoff. It might eventually go somewhere where the water will pour into a stream, lake, city/township/suburban drainage field/basin/etc. The water that's pouring out now is probably just rainwater coming from somewhere else (a higher elevation, likely). Are you downhill--even slightly--from the direction the water is coming from?

[saraha]

It definitely sounds like drainage tile, good job finding the hole again! It is there to drain saturated ground, and it sounds like you are thoroughly saturated. Like the other poster said, you'll want to keep that clear so it will drain.

[Dobela]

I would guess it's a drainage pipe for runoff. It might eventually go somewhere where the water will pour into a stream, lake, city/township/suburban drainage field/basin/etc. The water that's pouring out now is probably just rainwater coming from somewhere else (a higher elevation, likely). Are you downhill--even slightly--from the direction the water is coming from?

Yes we are on the downhill slope of the neighborhood. The property on one side is very steep. All the water from that slope drains into us and then we drain across the next house which drains into a small creek which eventually leads to a river about 5 miles away (as a crow flies).

 

And yes, we are totally saturated. To keep us from flooding they have been fullly opening the dams around us hoping the water will move on away and not flood us.