(First off I should say, it's never a good idea to buy a house in August in a drought year! 😂 "Honey what do you think they needed all those sump pumps under the house for?" 🤷🤦)
Our crawlspace almost always has water in it, year round, and we live in a location that regularly hasnear zero rainfall during the months of July and August. We have a seasonal pond that is dry by June. All the yards of our neighbors downhill of us become marshy ponds during the wet months of the year. We are almost the highest point of a hill with a couple of acres of woods behind us that slopes upwards and there is no sign of surface water in that area uphill of us. We installed a French drain along the whole back of the house and the water still collects in the crawlspace.
My husband calls it a seep or a spring. I'm wondering if it really can be called a seep though if there doesn't seem to be any water that could be "seeping". Maybe it's seeping from an underground spring up the hill a little ways? Maybe it's an actual spring under the house?
If there is a spring, how might we locate the source? (Please don't start debating dowsing, but for those who think it works, if we did dowse, would we find the source when there is so much water right under the ground everywhere?)
Right now the water is pumped to a pipe that goes to a little drainage pond. It only fills up during the winter rains. It's dry enough that the water completely drains away in the summer. It seems kind of a waste but the water also seems pretty gross- it's pretty muddy and there are rodent issues so i don't feel safe using the water for anything. I don't know if my concerns are unfounded though. Maybe there is a safe way to use the water, instead of just draining it away from the house.
I think I have started rambling... My main question is if anyone has any guesses if it is a seep or a spring and how can we figure out for sure?