get rid of water

Question
Hi!

I hope you can help us.  We know this may not be your expertise but we looked under irigation and there was no one there.

We have a small yard and we are the loweet property in our neighborhood.  We get the neighbors runoff and have a large area of water standing at the back of our property we would like to get rid of.  We can't really dig ditchs to get rid of it because it might go into our neighbor's yards.  We have kind of a clay soil.

Do you have any suggestions how we could get rid of this water?

Thank you in advance for your response.

John and Julie

Answer
Well, John& Judy, Truth of the matter is it is pretty hard to fool Mother Nature. Is there someone lower than you? You say your are the lowest point & yet you say if you dig a ditch you will flood someone else. Failing digging I would suggest planting a weeping willow. It will soak up a lot of water and maybe the rest will be controllable. Failing that you have a mosquito breeding ground. I am not sure what to tell you.
             
               Hope this helps
                     Leigh.