What is the proper way to discharge my sump pump and/or private drain (downspout drains)?

Any sump pump, private drain and/or downspout drain should be discharged into a vegetated area outside of the road right of way. In most cases the drain can have a pop up valve installed at the end of the pipe in order to allow the force of the water to open the valve to discharge the water onto the ground. This action keeps the area around the discharge point from being wet and saturated all of the time and also allows the soils to absorb the water naturally and keeps it from entering the storm sewers system, thus reducing the amount of runoff to the often inundated storm sewers.