Okay, I see your point about inadequate water supply. But ignoring
that, how could I use the sump water for watering the grass? Right now
it's all going to waste. Any little bit to conserve water helps,
right? If I'm going through the trouble of digging a foot deep trench
(frost line in my area is 42") just to dump it into the storm drain,
I'd rather do the work to reuse that water (ie, water the grass). I
don't think I appreciate grass enough to spend $50/month watering it,
so supplementing with sump water would be great.

Andy


"donald girod" wrote in message ...
In dry weather, when the grass needs water, the sump pump will not deliver a
significant amount of irrigation. Two times a day translates to maybe 20
gallons of water, equivlent to watering with a sprinkler for 5 minutes or
less. So this would be a lot of trouble to go to to achieve a negligible
benefit. You need about 1500 gallons to water the front yard thoroughly
(assuming 50x50). A large storage tank for the sumpwater would work, but
this seems impractical.

What most people do with sumpwater is drain it toward the street where it
can flow into a storm drain. This requires a trench about a foot deep (or
more) and some pvc, and then a "bubbler" at the end so that the water can
come up to the surface. Generally you put the end in a gravel-filled hole
(dry well) so that the pvc can drain completely and not freeze up.