On or about June 16, 2014, a drainage system contractor working for Tony Gillen, who leases and farms the Leonard Prescott field west of the Wolf Creek inlet to the lake, repaired the drainage system CLA had installed in that field in 2008.  The failure was reported in a previous post dated 4/1/13.  Earlier, Doug Sonnee and I attempted to find the blockage to the Basin 1 outlet drain tile.  We thought we found the block about 40 feet up from the outlet, but Doug’s camera was not working, so we couldn’t determine the type of blockage, i.e. crushed pipe, varmint nest, etc.  Later, Dave Russler and I tried to excavate the soil covering the section of the tile where the block was suspected, but we kept accidentally snagging and destroying the tile.  So we gave up and asked Tony to ask his drainage contractor, who was working in another of Tony’s fields, to take a look and see what he could do.  The contractor subsequently investigated and discovered that tree roots had grown into the tile, because the original installation contractor had failed to switch to non-perforated tile where the line is buried close to trees.  So he replaced the last 50 feet of perforated (and root-plugged) tile with “non-perf” tile.  His bill was $165, for about an hour’s work.  The repair was completed just prior to a heavy rainstorm, and Tony said the system worked perfectly.  Problem solved!

We will keep a close watch on the other drains, in case they also have perforated tile where they shouldn’t, and become root-clogged as well. since CLA is committed to maintaining the system for 15 years, a condition we accepted to obtain the landowner’s and lessee’s permission to install the system.