French Drain Installation in Lake Elsinore

French Drain Installation questions from Lake Elsinore customers

Where can a French drain legally discharge on a Lake Elsinore lot?

The city's stormwater ordinance defines the storm drain system to include streets, curbs, gutters and catch basins, and defines an illegal connection as any physical connection to it not permitted by the City of Lake Elsinore, Riverside County Flood Control, or another appropriate public agency. Uncontaminated footing- and foundation-drain water is on the exempt list. Lake Elsinore has adopted Riverside County road standards, which include Standard 310, "Private Drain Through Curb."

My Lake Elsinore property is on septic. Does that limit where a French drain can go?

Riverside County's Local Agency Management Program sets minimum horizontal separations for onsite wastewater systems: 15 feet from drainage courses for septic tanks, leach lines and seepage pits; 5 feet from a property line adjoining private property for tanks and leach lines; and 8 feet from a building for leach lines. The city's 2006 Water Resources Background Report counted more than 4,000 septic systems still in use in and around Lake Elsinore.

Does installing a French drain in Lake Elsinore require a permit?

Two approvals can come into play. Establishing an encroachment in a public place — street, curb, parkway — requires an encroachment permit from the city's administrative authority under LEMC 12.08.040. Separately, the city's grading standards apply to all land in Lake Elsinore in addition to the building code's grading chapter, and become hillside grading when a site has 10 percent or steeper natural slope across 25 percent of its area.

Does a French drain work differently on a lot close to the lakeshore?

The Department of Water Resources' Elsinore basin description notes that sediments are coarser near the margins of the basin and become finer toward Lake Elsinore, with fine-grained lacustrine sand, silt and clay reaching 800 feet thick in the zone of inundation. Finer material moves less water, so on shoreline-area lots the outlet a drain runs to matters more than what the surrounding soil will absorb.

What should I have ready before asking about a French drain in Lake Elsinore?

Whether the lot is on a hillside or the valley floor, whether it is near the lakeshore, where the water collects and for how long, whether the lot is on septic, and where any downspouts end. Photos taken during or just after a rain help. The Lake Elsinore guide on this site explains how the street, the curb outlet and the permit rules shape the choice.

When does a French drain matter most in Lake Elsinore?

In the wet season, which is short. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals give the Elsinore station 11.65 inches a year, with close to nine-tenths of it falling from November through April, and the City names October through April as its season of greatest flood potential. A drain that is clogged or has no outlet tends to be found out in the first storm, so the weeks before it are the time to check.