well, that's better

[rmd]

i'll keep a close eye, but it looks like a slight change in the pvc plumbing and a new one-way valve and my sump now appears to be pumped. i'll have to take a look tomorrow and make sure it's still at a happy low level.

all in all, i'm fairly happy. it could've been much worse, as i caught it before serious flooding had happened, and i still appear to have a sufficient-to-the-task cold-spare pump available if this one has a catastrophic failure some time.