Crawl space dilema

I have a rancher style house with a crawlspace. I live in Maryland right off of the Chesapeake bay. I have a high water table and my soil is practically clay. That being said, I have a trench around the perimeter inside my crawl space. I have no sump pump. The trench isn't graded so that water will run to one spot.
Now should I have a pump? If so where should I put it? The previous owner had a colinder with a bilge pump in it just inside the access to the crawl space. The bilge pump failed.

If you have a crawl space then the water isn't going to get into the living area. You need to grade things so the water will drain away.

It would take away a big sump pump to carry away the amount of surface water that can collect in that area if you don't have good drainage to carry it away.

Bob NH said:

If you have a crawl space then the water isn't going to get into the living area. You need to grade things so the water will drain away.

It would take away a big sump pump to carry away the amount of surface water that can collect in that area if you don't have good drainage to carry it away.

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Is there something I can do around the outside perimeter of the house? Is water more likely coming in through the block or by hydrostatic pressure?

You could french drain around the outside.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_drain