If that pipe ran to the public storm water drainage, you didnth ave to fix the drainage, You had to connect your washer to the sewer system !
***WHY? *** :dubious:
Are you not aware that there are two different types of drainage systems? 
In most cases, it is perfectly acceptable to run ‘drain’ water to the storm drainage system, as opposed to the ‘sanitary’ sewer drain.
This varies, depending upon location/municipality.
A lot of people that have septic sytems run their bathwater, sink drain water, washing machine drains thru a ‘French’ drain or field line system.
There is no reason that you have to connect the drain from a washing machine to a sanitary sewer line.
Unless you are hooked up to a ‘city sewage’ system and the codes say that you have to. 
thanks for clarifying that! 
I’d say the opposite: it most cases it is NOT acceptable to run sink, washer, or other drains to the storm drainage system. In fact, I’m trying to think of any time it would be acceptable; if a house is on septic, maybe some local code might allow running a sink or something to its own little mini-septic field, but that’s about it.
So yeah, in general, if your washer is hooked up to the storm sewer, you need to replumb the washer.
The house was built in 1955.
I originally thought the pipe was part of the gutter / downspout system. However, none of the gutters / downspouts back up when it rains heavily or when I run a hose directly into them; I’d assume if part of the pipe had broken off (or if this pipe was still connected to the gutters) that there’d be water backing up. For that reason, I don’t think it is or was connected to the gutters.
And you’re right, JB - it COULD be a root hole or something similar, but the hole is almost perfectly round and really does look manufactured as opposed to caused by something breaking the pipe. Manufactured perforations lead me back to a French drain.
Also, I whipped up a quick page with a few photos to more clearly show what I’ve found.
http://www.yearofglad.com/temp/pipe.html
Based on the pictures and the fact that the pipe is wet even above the exposed hole, the pipe is clearly leaking/weeping from somewhere above the pipe, too - the water I’m seeing isn’t just coming from the single hole.
How is that wall not holding back soil or not a retaining wall like you said earlier?
Try giving the dirt behind the retaining/garden wall a good soaking for a while and see if water comes out of that hole a little while later.
Like, spray down the dirt right behind the wall for 10 or 15 minutes and then wait a half an hour for it to trickle down. If it comes out of that hole, that pipe is just a drain for the retaining wall system. It’s there so that when you get a heavy rain, the water can’t build up behind the wall and blow it out.
Okay, so maybe it is. I always equate a retaining wall with a wall supporting … er… I don’t know. I don’t know what I was thinking.
So it’s a retaining wall.
I’ll try your suggestion and report back.
Also, it’s still not clear to me how the pipe continues to seep when it hasn’t rained (and that area hasn’t been watered) in … 4 or 5 days? And three of those days have had highs in the low to mid 70s. Where is the water coming from? Also, it doesn’t weep steadily - as I said, it dried up during the day and then got damp again in the evening, which seems to me to say that there was an influx of water / moisture somewhere between those times. If the moisture was still coming from the soil, I’d think it’d be more consistently weeping.
First, let’s figure out if the pipe is in fact a drain system for the retaining wall, then we can figure out the source of the water. But if you want to jump the gun a bit…does your water main enter your house on the side of the walk? Does the main drain leave the house over there? Is the water meter for your house by the street or in your house?
Well, soaking the area above the pipe definitely causes the pipe to fill with water. But that seems to only tell me the pipe has holes in it, whether manufactured or from roots, etc., which I already knew based on the fact that when I filled the pipe from the hose, the water came out up above eventually.
I honestly don’t know where the water main enters the house. However, the water meter is next to the street, a fair distance from the house. (across the driveway and probably another 20 feet, plus the 40-50 foot vertical drop).
According to PortlandMaps.com (I live in Portland, OR), the connection to the main city supply is 104’.
Also, here’s part of a permit I found at PortlandMaps.com which seems to indicate drainage pipes.
http://www.yearofglad.com/temp/pipe4.jpg
It’s fuzzy and hard to read and the page before it in the PDF where I found it is a permit dated 1954, so it may be that old - probably is, since it is all the underground drainage which would’ve been done when the house was built, obviously.
To help clarify what you’re seeing, the driveway and street would be at the bottom of the picture. The open area to the right of the picture is the garage. The area I’ve been working is in just outside of the garage in the trapezoid marked with a length of 10’.
Based on that, I’m assuming it’s one of the two indicated lines. (Sorry I didn’t find this earlier!)
There’s a courtyard in the back where two separate drainage lines appear to join and then run directly under the house. I’ve run water into both those lines and haven’t noticed anything coming out of the pipe I’m working with. I’ve also run water into the downspout that runs in front of the garage underground (the dashed 3" line) and not noticed anything, although that may connect further down the pipe I’m working on. Or, perhaps the exposed pipe is not that line on the drawing but the one running parallel to it.
The small rectangle just to the left of the garage is where the furnace is located (in a deepened part of the crawlspace).
The driveway is pretty much adjacent to the 10’ trapezoid.
I’ll bet you have of these under the retaining wall to the left of the steps and, I’m going to guess there’s a small garden/wall on the right side of the house and a bigger one on the left?
No, sorry. The dots and attached dashed lines on the left and right of the house, in addition to the one to the left of the steps, all indicate downspouts (as do the two dots in the courtyard area (top middle of diagram). That’s all downspout drainage stuff. All the downspouts on the house’s gutters correspond to dots on the diagram.
There are extremely large retaining walls on the house-side of the driveway, but they’re further away from the house than anything pictured on the diagram.
Looking at that map, the pipe you’re looking at starts right at the house and then connects to the other side of the sidewalk where it meets up with the ones from the back of the house. That’s why flushing out the pipe at the back of the house didn’t cause water to come out of the hole.
I was guessing RD was Retaining wall Drain. Must be Runoff Drain.
To make sure we’re talking about the same line, are you hypothesizing that the pipe I’m looking at is the one indicated here:
The next one to the left.
Sorry, but the one to the left is the one that (to my eyes) runs straight under the house (up in the diagram) to where it diverges to connect to the two rain drains - one on either side of the courtyard. I’m not seeing how you’re inferring that it starts right at the house - that line appears to me to continue under the house.
Also, sent you a PM with my email if that’s more convenient.
It does, indeed run under the house, I’m just saying the one you dug up connects to that one. When you hosed down the drains at the back house, it didn’t go past the section you dug up.
That also means that the water is coming in right in that general area. That should make finding it much easier. Unless it has anything to do with the line that wraps around the left side of the house.
All that sounds fine, but the real issue (not to sidestep the interesting bit about what the purpose of the pipe is) is unclogging it. I spent some time gently tapping a screwdriver inside and loosening up pieces of lime, then filling the pipe, creating a geyser of water coming out of the hole (once I remove the hose). The geyser has lifted out some giant chunks of lime and tons of little pieces. (Well, it seems like tons, anyway.)
I’ve poured lime-away in and it seems to help soften it up some. Nevertheless, the pipe has tons of lime in it - too much to allow even a small snake to get started.
I may have removed enough so it flows reasonably well, but there’s still a ton in there.
I’d keep working at it for a while and see what happens. Maybe you’ll get lucky and find out it’s only an inch thick.
After that, I’d seriously think about just breaking the pipe open with a sledge hammer and seeing what’s going on that way. Worry about repairing it (or letting it drain onto the walk when it rains) later.
How do you feel about digging? I get the funny feeling that digging up the section of garden is in your future. It’s not going to surprise me if that’s what it’s going to take to remove and replace that section of pipe as well as figure out where the water is coming from.
But it’s not my house so it’s really easy to say this from my comfy chair.