Performed an inspection today and cannot figure out what this pit is used for. Any ideas?
EDIT: The pit is in the front yard and the house is on about 1 acre of land so the nearest home is probably about 50 yard to the left and right. The home was built in 1938 and remodeled in 2023.
From here it looks like the public water service/meter.
If in town, I’d say storm water intake, if in country, I’d say septic tank.
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Your location, an overview of the area and general information like age of the home and location of the “pit” might be helpful. Looks like a shallow well in your first pic or maybe an outhouse 
.
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If near the home or another structure, it could be/have been an abandoned Sump pit.
I run into a couiple of these a year, but are becomming less and less frequent every year.
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By no means is this identifying or answering your question, but my parents’ house built in the 60’s, had a buried 50g tank that took the clothes washer water. Why? I have no clue, but it did look similar to that set up with the pipe strapped in.
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Probably a gray water re-use tank. Good idea for water conservation and garden usage.
(Edited as answer directed at Thomas’ post but this FU BB does not properly quote posts when selected).
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Thanks for the response! The home was built in 1938 and remodeled in 2023. The pit is in the front yard about 30 feet in front of the home.
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You have over 15 other people in your office who may know what this is. Obviously they will know more about your specific area. Why not call one of them??
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did You taste a water sample ???
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Possible municipal storm water mitigation system?
Are there similar corrugated risers and lids on other properties along the road?
Is there a lake or river near by?
Is the property on low lying ground.
Call me crazy but it looks to be about the right size to hide a body. 
My other WAG would be an abondon well.
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Fwiw, I pay ZERO attention to “remodel” dates that people list… the term is thrown around and supposed to mean what? The whole house? One screw in a door hinge? It’s just a worthless term for our purposes of inspecting and buyers, sellers and agents love to throw it around to mean something? Sure, I pay attention to when various things were done in a house but, “remodeled,” might as well be in Turkish for my purposes (rant over).
The pit in the yard? Could be anything on a house of that age. With it being a somewhat rural property I’d be worried about underground fuel storage tanks. It was super-common in that era to bury tanks for farm equipment, etc. I’d definitely stop short of identifying it or even speculating too far with the buyer. You might take note of the age of the nearby houses and do some mental gymnastics… 1938 house sitting in the middle of a bunch of 70s construction? It was likely a farm of some type which opens up a lot of possibilities.
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I would be looking for any hints as to the type of energy used to heat the home originally. If there are any remnants of heating fuel use inside the home, you may have your answer. The tended to bury tanks relatively close to the home, is another potential clue. If it were my sincere suspicion that this is is an abandoned underground oil tank, I would definitely call it out as a possible material defect requiring further investigation.
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I was browsing a Facebook Group I am in and came across a couple of posts mentioning “Earthing Pits”.
I have no first hand knowledge of them, and don’t ever recall seeing one, and likely wouldn’t know what it was if I did discover one.
I immediately thought of this thread, so thought I would share what I found, (minus the very lenghty comments section).
“He found a post hole” was term used by some mafia/Gov assests back in the the day. They would drill a post hole deposit the victim and then add a bag of lime, disappeared in a jiffy. Sad but true.
My son remodeled his home and had a similar pit near the kitchen. It was for drainage from the kitchen sink.
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