POTENTIAL WATER LEAK

[NewPoolGuy2023]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum, and also a new pool owner (bought last summer). I wanted to get your assistance/thoughts on a potential issue with water near my pool.

Background information:
A few months ago when we started to get a lot of rain in Houston, I noticed part of my yard was not drying out and that the downspout next to my pool was also not drying out. I decided to dig down a bit to see if I could locate the issue, and to my surprise, I found there was an old french drain put in the middle of the yard that was completely clogged and buried (my gardener who has cut this house's grass for two years didn't even know it was there). I traced the line and discovered that it dumped into the back of the property, which was against the grade. Additionally, I discovered the back downspout (the one that would not dry out) was also connected to the same drain system. The clogged system explains why the downspout never dried out and potentially overflowed into the ground.

Bottom line: the line was not done correctly and resulted in water accumulating underground in the yard.

Fast forward, I removed the inlet of the downspout drain as I was going to replace it with a 9" catch basin and run the corrugated pipe out to the street so that it drains properly and discharges near to street sewer. I discovered that was coming out from the area, and as I dug deeper, I noticed the pool plumbing was underneath.

Issue: I am trying to diagnose the source of the water.

I have a leak detection specialist coming out next week, but in the meantime, I wanted to see if anyone can help me think through this issue.

I also decided to run an experiment with the water chemistry. My hypothesis is if the source is the pool, then the chemistry should be identical or similar. I ran a three-way test between pool water, water from the hole, and tap water.

Results: All three water samples came back with different chlorine levels
-Pool water: High chlorine level (I shocked the pool yesterday to raise the level so that any trace of chlorine would be easier to detect)
-Water from the hole: zero trace of chlorine, but the rest of the chemistry seemed similar
-Tap water: some trace of chlorine (as expected, I use city water and the city puts chlorine in the water)

I am uploading a video for your review. Any assistance or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and I look forward to your comments.

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum.
Test the hole water for CYA. That product does not exist in tap water.

 

[NewPoolGuy2023]

Welcome to the forum.
Test the hole water for CYA. That product does not exist in tap water.

I took it to the local pool store to be tested and they said my pool water had 60ppm of stabilizer and the water from the hole had no trace of stabilizer. Am I to conclude that the water is not from the pool and could be either ground water (potentially high water table) or maybe a plumbing leak from a different source? My hypothesis is that this is ground water because it also did not have any trace of chlorine, which the tapwater and garden sprinkler water do have.

Thoughts?

 

[Toxophilite]

I took it to the local pool store to be tested and they said my pool water had 60ppm of stabilizer and the water from the hole had no trace of stabilizer. Am I to conclude that the water is not from the pool and could be either ground water (potentially high water table) or maybe a plumbing leak from a different source? My hypothesis is that this is ground water because it also did not have any trace of chlorine, which the tapwater and garden sprinkler water do have.

Thoughts?

I don't know about stabilizer, but imagine the chlorine goes through a long biological gauntlet before it gets out there. My suspected leak would slow seep a test hole 10 feet from pool water. I never found chlorine in the water from it. Finally, we got a wet period and some water started pooling by the spa through pavers. That water did test for chlorine, and I now know the spa leak was source to begin with.

 

[Newdude]

but imagine the chlorine goes through a long biological gauntlet before it gets out there.

This is what I was thinking earlier. That it may have been pool water which lost its free chlorine passing though the dirt full of organics. So it really was pool water but had no FC left.

But CYA would still be there if it was pool water. *if the pool store test is correct*. While they are wildly off with CYA of all tests, I do believe they would have gotten a reading if any CYA was present. It woulda been the wrong reading, but still a reading.

My vote is ground water, or house water /irrigation leak.

 

[Toxophilite]

This is what I was thinking earlier. That it may have been pool water which lost its free chlorine passing though the dirt full of organics. So it really was pool water but had no FC left.

But CYA would still be there if it was pool water. *if the pool store test is correct*. While they are wildly off with CYA of all tests, I do believe they would have gotten a reading if any CYA was present. It woulda been the wrong reading, but still a reading.

My vote is ground water, or house water /irrigation leak.

Yeah, in my test of many other testing measures to find if, or if not, I really had a pool leak, I didn't think about CYA, as the rabbit ran to another hole and I followed to chase after. If it had not been for that wet spell where ground water was so saturated that new water started peeping through at the top, I'd still be chasing that slow leak.