In article ,
Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:

To translate, any soakaway on
clay will fill up eventually in the UK, as precipitation exceeds
evaporation even in Essex. My father-in-law dug one 2+ metres
deep and a similar width, and it did, every winter.

Even my sandy-soil soakaway sometimes gets filled to the brim in
prolonged rainstorms. I can tell when the turf overlying the spot swells
up into a noticeable bulge :-) They don't empty by evaporation, (I know
you didn't mean to imply that, but just for the sake of the innocent,
okay? ) but by slowly filtering water out into the surrounding soil. In
the case of my soakaway, the too-full bulge subsides again soon after
the rain stops. Phil is likely to experience a longer delay in clay.

Agreed - thanks for clarifying. In solid clay, in winter, the delay
is almost invariably so long that soakaways don't. They simply fill
up and overflow. They DO help in summer, a bit.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.