What are the major drawbacks to living near a sump/drainage basin/recharge?

Can anyone tell me what are the major drawbacks from living near a sump/drainage basin/recharge? Are there any sort of risks associated with this (such as mosquitos, water issues, etc).

Just wondering

Message edited 1/28/2008 10:02:49 AM.

Re: What are the major drawbacks to living near a sump/drainage basin/recharge?

The only thing I ever noticed was having a lot of pests around. Raccoons, possums, mice... But I suppose anywhere near a wooded area is going to have that.

We also had a lot of kids who liked to hang out and drink there, or during the dry season, ride their motorcycles in there.

Re: What are the major drawbacks to living near a sump/drainage basin/recharge?

The area we live in is wooded. And across the street from us is a water recharge area. Never had any issues. It's taken care of by Nassau County, and every few months, they have a crew in there and cleaning it up and pruning it back. I do find mosquitos in the summer time to be annoying, but aren't they everywhere - i.e., I wouldn't attribute them to the recharge basin.

ETA: It's completely fenced and I've never seen anyone in there hanging out. It's actually a steep drop.

Message edited 1/28/2008 10:38:37 AM.

Re: What are the major drawbacks to living near a sump/drainage basin/recharge?

I grew up with a sump behind our house and I liked it. It gave us a bit of privacy and no issues with neighbors. Our sump very rarely had any water in it, so it was basically wooded. We had raccoons and possums, but they were never an issue, except once when our Yorkie decided to fight a possum (or raccoon...we never got to see what he took on) under our shed one night. Obviously you do need to be more aware if you have smaller dogs. As for mosquitoes, I never noticed them to be more abundant than anywhere else. I do recall the town spraying the sump when there were concerns.

Re: What are the major drawbacks to living near a sump/drainage basin/recharge?

Just wondering when we house hunt if this should be a concern to me, so thanks for your feedback.

We have a LOT of mosquitos where we currently live, and I don't even have a recharge basin anywhere in sight. We do have a wooded area so we do see a lot of small critters. But again, no sump so I guess there isn't much difference.

Thanks so much for the input.

Message edited 1/28/2008 2:54:13 PM.

Re: What are the major drawbacks to living near a sump/drainage basin/recharge?

Go check it out during or after a major rain storm. Sometimes the drainage system upstream is blocked so much that the basin will get very little water. In other cases, there could be a basin downstream that is blocked and the basin near your house could get backflow and cause local flooding. Almost all the basins drain down eventually, but if you have local flooding on your street, you could have major problems - there can be a large amount of water in a relatively short amount of time.

Also, I don't think the county maintains all of them equally well. Some get neglected for a long time. I am not sure I would want to live next to one unless I checked it out at various times. I agree with the pest issue as well.

Re: What are the major drawbacks to living near a sump/drainage basin/recharge?