Port Townsend: There's a Soggy, Green Patch in My Lawn That Won't Dry Out

Why this happens in Port Townsend

An irrigation leak: a cracked lateral or a weeping valve wets the ground on watering days. In Port Townsend that usually means poly on the Cape George parcels near Uptown, and the ground, sandy bluffs above the Strait, decides how far the water travels before you see it.

The second thing we rule in or out is a natural seep or perched water. Common on bluff and hillside lots. It's common enough on acreage toward Cape George that we never skip it.

Don't overlook a failed drain line. A crushed downspout or yard drain line discharging into the lawn instead of its outlet. On Port Townsend properties from an 1880s Victorian seaport ringed by mid-century neighborhoods it comes up more than you'd think.

Before you call

On the Cape George and Discovery Bay parcels the runs are long and the correlator narrows them.

What you can check yourself on mid-century grid lots on Sheridan Street: note whether the spot is downhill of the meter-to-house line's route. Don't dig at the spot. If you get that far, we'll pick it up from there with probe rods and marking and electronic acoustic ground microphone.

What happens next

In Port Townsend the work that follows the diagnosis is underground water leak detection, and it runs in order: confirm and mark, correlate, confirm there is a leak. Century-old lines with unknown routes in till toward Discovery Bay sets the pace on waterfront near Point Hudson; the sequence doesn't change.

Our Port Townsend coverage for soggy lawn spot runs Hastings Avenue, Sheridan Street, Water Street, Fort Worden and everything between. We're based in Central Kitsap, a dedicated trip across the Hood Canal Bridge, with probe rods and marking and pumps on the truck.