Frederick, Thank you for your question. My first recommendation is to not push down on the air discharge pin with a screwdriver. This will allow water to get above the float and to the bottom of the pin and could carry debris in to the seal and cause it to continue to leak water. The float inside the air vent assembly will raise and lower when air accumulates and is removed. As air accumulates above the float the flow will drop, pull open the pin and allow the air to escape, water will push the float back up to close the discharge pin. There is always a small air pocket above the float that prevents water from getting to the bottom of the discharge pin and keeps debris from getting into the seal. When you manually push the pin you remove that air pocket and allow water to get above the float. The water level will drop as air accumulates and it will return to its original operating state.