Many people love the idea of owning waterfront property, since it can sometimes raise your property value thanks to the location alone. However, accidental waterfront property is another story, and it’s something that one Kansas City homeowner says he is sick of dealing with.
AJ White told KSHB News about his situation recently, describing how he purchased his home about a year ago but had been unable to settle into his new place due to an unusual issue in his backyard. According to him, the standing water appeared just two months after he bought the house, creating an icy situation over the winter.
But when spring came, the water didn’t recede. And White told reporters that nothing he did helped with the situation, including his attempts at clearing out the standing water. He reached out to local officials for help, including the city council and legal investigators. However, nothing has improved the situation.
Now that the water appears to be moving closer to White’s home, he’s getting worried about what the future will hold for his new property, especially since nobody seems to know where it’s coming from.
The Water Appears Regardless of Rainfall
When you hear about a situation like this, you might automatically think that there is a low-lying area in White’s yard that collects water runoff after the rain. However, White says that the water sometimes appears on its own regardless of the weather, and it refills just as fast as he can clean it up.
“I’ll pump it out, and 20 minutes later, this whole pond is full back up,” White told reporters. It apparently became a real problem over the winter when he brought home a new pet.
“My puppy back then, I got him at 7 weeks,” he explained. “It would freeze over so much where he could walk on the ice like a little ice rink. From that point on, I started taking pictures.”
He took his documentation to the city and tried to get help with the issue, but said that he felt like he was being bounced around from agency to agency without any help. Because it was his first house, White felt like the problem was really sucking all of the joy out of the experience, especially since he was starting to worry about the damage the growing pond could eventually cause to his home’s foundation.
Investigators Don’t Know Why the Water Is There
The outlet sent someone from the city to try to pinpoint where the water was coming from, but they didn’t have any luck either. “We can’t really determine which way it’s coming because it’s coming up through a conduit,” one crew member confessed.
While the city told KSHB News that it was still investigating the source of the water, there are a few common issues that can cause ponding in your yard. Most of these reasons have to do with rainfall or snowmelt, but there are a few options that fit the description of White’s problem, and they include things like high water tables, underground springs, and broken pipes.
According to American Home Shield, ponding water doesn’t have to keep you from enjoying your backyard. The website has a few suggestions on how to cope with issues like this. Of course, it sounds like White will need to figure out the source of his pond problem first, since getting rid of the water may require addressing a deeper issue first.