Hi,

I hope you all have some ideas, because this phantom pool leak issue is driving me completely insane! I've lived here nine years and haven't had any real problems with the pool until this year.

Here's the story: The pool is a rectangular, 16'x36' vinyl-lined in-ground pool (the liner is over concrete? concrete/vermiculite mix?). It was built sometime between 1973-1975. There is no main drain at the bottom of the pool.

Since I opened it this summer, water has been pouring out onto the street from my waste/backwash pipe. Initially, the pool was leaking down to the point of the return and intake ports, so I assumed the leak was coming from there. The return port gasket was bad, and since I had patched the liner in the corner last year, I figured that probably had something to do with it too.

So I bit the bullet and $3500 later, I have a brand spanking new liner. They installed it last week and by Thursday, I had it refilled and ready to go. I thought. Then the city knocked on my door to ask why water was pouring out to the street. By Friday night, the water had dropped down to the return and suction lines. By this morning, it had dropped another 5 inches and is at the bottom of my second step.

The pool guys who installed the liner came out this morning and dye tested around the stairs and the ladders. He couldn't find anything and is completely confused (as am I) as to why it's pouring from the waste/backwash line when the pool water level is now well below any plumbing.

He's coming back with some machine to test the liner for leaks. He doesn't expect to find any.

The concrete patio area around the pool looks fine (no new cracks, no sinking, etc). The grass around that looks fine (no soggy areas, no patches of dead grass, etc.). The pool equipment is housed above ground in a shed about three feet from the pool. The pump runs fine when the water is at skimmer level--there doesn't seem to be any suction loss or bubbles coming from the return line. Of course, it only runs fine for a day, because the water level is dropping so quickly.

Does anyone have ANY ideas? The only think I can think of is an underground plumbing leak, but the water level is too far below any plumbing now for that to make any sense. I suspected a leak around the fiberglass stairs...except that the water is coming out the waste pipe!

I am at a complete loss. I'm a widow with two young kids at home and three kids in college; I just don't have another large chunk of cash to put into fixing it! I was really hoping a new liner would solve the problem! Much to my kids' dismay, I'm considering just filling it in with dirt if this is going to be an expensive fix.

Although I hope someone will write back to say "no worries! This happened to me and it cost me $20 and two hours to fix," I doubt it'll happen. But I'm crossing my fingers!!

Ideas??

Thanks in advance,

Mari