1) depending on where the groundwater table is and if your crawlspace is below exterior grade, then certianly water can come up from the ground.

2) If this is the case there's not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it, but the water should recede and go away on its own as the watertable returns to a typical level.

Hope that helps.

"...good amount of water congregating in the low corner of the crawl below my vapor barrier."

It the low point is below the water table water can easily rise up.

Adding some fill to the low point (gravel) under the vapor barrier, and then topping it with sand is about the only fix.

The sand is needed to protect the vapor barrier if you ever need to work in that area.

If the water subsides on its own without breaching the vapor barrier it should be fine.

The only long term issue I can think of would be repeated movement of a vapor barrier.

Plastic tends to stiffen with age and the movement could eventually cause cracking.

A repair would be needed at that point.

That was about the only solution that I could come up with. It will be a royal pain getting any amount of gravel through the tiny passageway, but I haven't been able to think of any other solutions. Thanks for the replies.