Yard & Landscape Drainage in French Valley

Yard & Landscape Drainage questions from French Valley customers

Why does my yard hold water for days and then crack open in summer?

That is Vertisol behavior, and two of them are mapped here. The Auld series, with its type location about 11 miles northeast of Temecula, is described with slow permeability, medium to rapid runoff, and cracks half an inch to an inch and a half wide at the surface. Porterville clay, also mapped on the valley floor, has slow permeability and slickensides at depth.

Why do two houses a few streets apart in French Valley drain so differently?

The soil map changes fast across this valley. The flood district's soils layer rates Las Posas, Friant, Lodo, Cieneba, Placentia and Willows map units in the area as hydrologic group D, and Auld clay, Porterville clay, Monserate, Escondido and Ramona units as group C. Group A units, mostly Hanford, Honcut, Visalia and Greenfield, appear in only a handful of polygons.

Some of the soil out here is called saline-alkali. Does that affect yard drainage?

Several map units in the French Valley area carry that phase, including Willows silty clay, strongly saline-alkali, rated group D, plus Chino silt loam, drained, saline-alkali and Grangeville fine sandy loam, saline-alkali. The Chino and Grangeville units are mapped in drained phases and carry dual ratings of C/D, A/D and B/D, meaning the rating depends on whether drainage is maintained.

What does landscape drainage repair involve on a French Valley lot?

Finding where the water enters and where it can leave, then choosing what carries it. In French Valley the ground is the starting point: the USDA's Auld series has slow permeability and surface cracks a half inch to an inch and a half wide in dry periods, so water that cannot soak in has to leave across the surface or through a drain. A repair is built around the outlet, which is reasoning from those soil properties.

Can I send yard water into the street in French Valley?

Check first. French Valley is unincorporated, and Riverside County's stormwater ordinance defines an illicit discharge as any discharge to the storm drain system that is not composed entirely of stormwater runoff, unless it is made under a permit or otherwise authorized, and an illicit connection as any physical connection to the storm drain system that the County or the Flood Control District has not permitted. Whether a particular drain may reach a curb is a question for the County.