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Trouble With My Parents Neighbor and Drainage

I

in-too-deep

Well-known Member
Is there an organization in northern Illinois that deals with watershed and ag drainage issues? Lee county. Mom and dad's neighbor decided to trespass and run two 18 in. drain tiles onto their property without permission or warning. Lines drain several hundred acres if not thousands of acres. Dad said he has an appointment with FAS. ? Said it's associated with NRCS. Anyone else he should be contacting? Know a good lawyer for this stuff? Dixon area. He has never been on good terms with neighbor, and after 20 years of disrespect, the camel's back is broken. Dad's checking the deed for any small print that might allow the tile. My email is open and thank VERY much for any advice. I'll try to reply when I can.
 
NRCS is the part of FSA- Farm Service Agency, that deals with tiling, drainage, etc. In MN you can"t dump your water on someone else"s land. You can dump it on your own land, I think 20 feet from the property line, and it MAY legally run to the neighbor"s land. Start with NRCS, if no satisfaction, get legal advice. I know where I"d go in MN....Kurt Deter, in St. Cloud. Call him...maybe he knows of similar expertise in Illinois.
 
Two small farmers got into a deal like that here where one farm was above the other one he drained his water onto the lower farms field well the upper farm Just happened to be the county commissioner gues who won that one
 
If the legal way doesn't work, there's always a need to create a BIG pile of dirt on YOUR OWN LAND. If it should happen to block off a pipe you didn't put in, OH WELL.

Sorry, I know that's not the kind of answer your looking for, but in the course of my life I have had more than my share of other people trying their best to make their problems MY problems.......and I am so over that nonsense, it ain't at all funny.....
 
After dealing with my neighbors and their willingness to call the cops on me for walking down the road past their house after dark (among other excuses), I am inclined to agree with NCWayne. I would pull the tiles on my land "almost" to property line and place a BIG pile of dirt at the end of what's left plugging it solid. Might be wise to consult with authorities first tho.
 
What guys do here is find the tile with a post auger and put concrete footings in for fence post. Then never put the post in. It always happens on the property lines?🤔
 
Yes, not very nice. Especially with no communication. Legally, you can dump tile water at your own fence and let it flow onto the neighbors. Landowners below have to take the water from above. I believe that the tile can only dump what would have naturally drained from the land above via the surface. The tile should not dump at the fence or across the fence, but a short ways back. His outlet should not be on your side. I put a similar outlet at the fence this last fall myself which was approved by the NRCS as an outlet. Land below is a cow pasture/non farm ground, in a trust, no money is ever spent, and there was a small ditch to use as an outlet. Two smaller tiles were already dumping this way - past history. Generally though, to be a good neighbor, if someone is tiling land above, the landowner doing the tiling would ask if you wanted to hook on and continue the tile on through your land. This could be at your cost (majority of the time) or in my case my dad once paid for 1/2 of a neighbor's run just to avoid an outlet on our side. Did I read your post correctly?? Two 18" tiles? Those are huge. About the only time NRSC or the conservation district will get involved is on soil loss complaints. They really do not want to be in a position to be "police". These laws are all covered in the state code. This kind of thing happens all of the time. One of my neighbors pattern tiled an 80 acre field and hooked it to my 6" clay tile as the only outlet. He put a blowout on his side. Actually doesn't work to bad. Another neighbor caught my water flowing on to his land with a diversion and redirected it back on to my land as I was on two sides of him. Legally he can't do that since the water really was to flow across him and not back on to me. Good luck. I am sure you feel taken advantage of. Did he think you didn't want to participate? How far would the tile need to continue on yours to a creek/steam? The 18" tiles you see might just be the outlets. Are they running water? Is it dumping in a ditch? If it is running a lot of water it will continually cut a ditch on your side. Like I said before 18" would have an extreme cost. I just paid $0.88 a foot for 4 inch and $1.17 a foot for 5 inch (tile and trench). I have no clue what 18" tile would be let alone the trench ($10 a foot?).
 
Don't know about IL, but in the Red River Valley in ND, the county drain board would handle that. They know all the laws and enforce them vigorously - and won't allow one person to run water onto another person's land. The board will not allow a person to block off a natural waterway unless that person has an alternate drain system (paid for by that person) that runs water into the master drain system. We had several fights with neighbors over such matters.
 
(quoted from post at 03:26:42 04/15/16) Yes, not very nice. Especially with no communication. Legally, you can dump tile water at your own fence and let it flow onto the neighbors. Landowners below have to take the water from above. I believe that the tile can only dump what would have naturally drained from the land above via the surface. The tile should not dump at the fence or across the fence, but a short ways back. His outlet should not be on your side. I put a similar outlet at the fence this last fall myself which was approved by the NRCS as an outlet. Land below is a cow pasture/non farm ground, in a trust, no money is ever spent, and there was a small ditch to use as an outlet. Two smaller tiles were already dumping this way - past history. Generally though, to be a good neighbor, if someone is tiling land above, the landowner doing the tiling would ask if you wanted to hook on and continue the tile on through your land. This could be at your cost (majority of the time) or in my case my dad once paid for 1/2 of a neighbor's run just to avoid an outlet on our side. Did I read your post correctly?? Two 18" tiles? Those are huge. About the only time NRSC or the conservation district will get involved is on soil loss complaints. They really do not want to be in a position to be "police". These laws are all covered in the state code. This kind of thing happens all of the time. One of my neighbors pattern tiled an 80 acre field and hooked it to my 6" clay tile as the only outlet. He put a blowout on his side. Actually doesn't work to bad. Another neighbor caught my water flowing on to his land with a diversion and redirected it back on to my land as I was on two sides of him. Legally he can't do that since the water really was to flow across him and not back on to me. Good luck. I am sure you feel taken advantage of. Did he think you didn't want to participate? How far would the tile need to continue on yours to a creek/steam? The 18" tiles you see might just be the outlets. Are they running water? Is it dumping in a ditch? If it is running a lot of water it will continually cut a ditch on your side. Like I said before 18" would have an extreme cost. I just paid $0.88 a foot for 4 inch and $1.17 a foot for 5 inch (tile and trench). I have no clue what 18" tile would be let alone the trench ($10 a foot?).
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Legally, you can dump tile water at your own fence and let it flow onto the neighbors." A blanket statement like that is just plain wrong. It depends on many things, only one of which is where you are located!
 
One of our drainage fights involved a family whose old man had covered over 3 culverts under a road that ran water into a natural waterway onto one of his son's land. He had the culverts covered during the dry years when my uncle was supposed to be farming the land after Grandpa died, but spent most of his time in the beer hall.

When we took over the land and the wet years returned, we tried to get the township to open the old culverts, but the old cronies said that we'd have to locate the old culverts. Dad hired a guy from the National Guard to come out on a Saturday and he located 3 culverts. The township board were buddies of the land owner so backed off opening the culverts. Dad got the county drain board involved and they gave the landowner the option of paying for a mile of new ditch on our side of the road and put in larger culverts on each end of the mile to get the water into the county drain system.

The land owner paid dearly to keep the water from getting into the natural waterway - and in the end he could flood two of his brother's lands on each end with the new ditch and culverts, so that became a family fight. They were the kind of people that, it they couldn't fight with the neighbors, they would fight each other.
 
I had a guy telling me he was going to drain the 120 acres he just bought(half was woods before he cleared it) and dump it on my land where an existing Creek/drain already exists. This runs full on the edge of my field as is in the spring. I figured it would for sure begin to flood my field/property. I contacted the county drain commissioner and he said the guy has the right to drain his land, but it would be a problem if it negatively impacted mine, like not being able to farm what has been. I haven't heard any more. Hasn't been done either. That was 3 years ago.
 
There is a lot of variance from state to state and even county to county. Ask the advice of a local lawyer who handles drainage law.
 
Goes back to the Egyptians, always a war over water. Some too much some too little, but its always a battle.

I'm very fortunate with my farm being split in half with a ditch through the middle of it, the 3 neighbors off to the sides of me that flow through me have been great to work with. One of the reasons wife and I paid too much and bought land from one of the neighbors this spring - we didn't want new neighbors there.

Its a battle.

Its easier to stop a project like that; now the tile is there almost impossible to get rid of it, so the deal will be to deal with the results now. Very tough situation. A lot is going to depend on your local county people.

I had a deal a few years back, the phone co ran a fiber optic and copper wire lengthwise through 1000 feet of my tile. They of course had no responsibility for it..... I musta finally said things right and got the right people; my county put up a block on the phone co getting any permits in my county until it was resolved. -that- was govt in action, my county water guy and engineer really went to bat for the little guy. Of course I couldn't be a jerk about it, it still cost me a bunch to get it resolved but at least the phone co had to come back to the table and talk to me, I got a little something from them. Neighbor and I spent $10,000 putting in a new main, the phone co and the county chipped in $4000. We have a better tile, but it cost us out of our pocket too..... If we had asked for the world and everything free, I don't think we would have got anything.

Be calm, ask for a resolution in the middle from your county people, and hope they care about the job they have and the people they represent....... They have a lot of power if they care, of they do their job.

Paul
 
Another option also would be to get your county councilman involved if you have one like we do where I live. Also a district or state representative.
I work for the county I live in and see all the time the government just pushing paper at the office worker level. Involve your elected official. The get elected by votes. The worker is there for life. Just my 2 cents,
 
I assume these tile cross to drain into an open ditch.

Here in Iowa it is legal to dump the water at the fence line if the down stream neighbor does not want a tile across his land.

So if I had a neighbor who was going to dump at my fence or cross my land to dump right into the ditch, I would let him cross to dump into the ditch.

Happens all the time here in this area where the bottom guy lets the top guy trough with a tile.

I am the bottom guy before the river.

Gary
 
If it is a natural waterway and it runs down hill you have to take the water.County supervisors and drainage district people can be the ones to talk to.
 
It might not be legal, but I would find an old dead muskrat or groundhog and combined with whatever crop he is growing on his land and stuff the combination up his drain tile as far far possible. Or you could get hold of an oil well plug and shove it up there. Once the plug is where you want it, just give it a jerk and it will expand and stay in place.
 
The law may be on your side,but it could cost you thousands to get justice. I went through that with a development across the road from me. You need a ag law lawyer and he will tell you to
get expert witnesses and before you know it your in the hole for 20 grand in legal fees before court. The local asc office doesn't want to get involved and forget any township help.
 
This is true as a neighbor built a dam to stop run ofF{mother natures flow of water} from my property to his a cause a water back up on my property {this guy is a township trustee,suppose to know the ins and outs}. I talked to my lawyer and the neighbor can not do that. That same day I blocked neighbor at his field drive and told him to take that dam out as I have talked to lawyer. He was mad as all H3xx at me big time. Had two other township trustees look at this and they called neighbor and he had already taken the dam out. Needless to say we speak but that is about it. This same guy had farmed this farm for over 20 yrs and he drives by my place at least twelve times a day to his other property.
 
I don't believe NCWayne is an attorney. If you do what he says you will probably be in the receiving end of a lawsuit. You can't interfere with natural drainage. The guy installing the tile should have at least contacted you but it sounds like he installed the tile to an existing drainage ditch. A little courtesy goes a long way. I don't see where this affects you much. Contact an attorney though. He will know what to do.
 
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