Getting Started
As homesteaders/farmers, we are big into “DIY” projects. If we don’t know how, we watch a YouTube video and figure it out. However, pond construction not only requires special construction equipment, but trained technical skills and intensive planning and organization. The idea that anyone can build a pond – all they have to do is dig a hole or push some dirt to create a dam and BOOM! We have a pond – is foolish. Without proper planning and technical construction procedures, it’s just a disaster waiting to happen.
Pond construction is time consuming and costly, but not as costly as when an improperly constructed dam fails and you are liable for ALL damages down slope. Real estate agents and auctioneers marketing a homestead will often advertise a ‘pond site’ as part of ‘the charm’ of the land, but their suggestions could be (and, generally, are) huge mistakes.
There is FREE technical help available for the land owner. The local/county Soil and Water District office has highly trained and certified technicians to help you. Their training includes determining watershed areas, pond size and depth, and design of a properly constructed and safe pond for you. Their designs will include shape, size, and landscape design as well as the type and size of pond mechanical overflow that is best for your situation. They will also provide you with a list of trained contractors.
A quick FYI:
1. Using a government agency to help create your pond does not require you to open your pond to the public. For information about Soil and Water Districts, use this web site. Look under Resources for links to your state.
2. Generally, there is no cost sharing money available for pond construction, maintenance, repair, or fish stocking. Talk with your Soil and Water staff if you have questions.
To get started call or meet with the Soil and Water District personnel to schedule an onsite visit to evaluate your potential pond site. You will need to have a larger backhoe or mini-excavator to dig test holes (6’ to 16’ deep), so the technician can evaluate the soil for water-holding capacity and dam core construction material.
The guidelines used by the technicians have been developed over the years for preventing pond and dam failure and providing community safety. Their specific training can identify potential problems and hazards, saving you time and money. Some people don’t like the guidelines and chose not to use Soil and Water to design their pond, but use only their technical information to determine pond size and depth.
Our state, Ohio, has a dam inspection and construction regulation. Depending on the pond size and/or dam height, the pond needs inspected every year. There is a dam inspection tax. The Soil and Water office helps the landowner through this process. You can look up the regulatory code online for your state. Your pond maybe exempt.
Pond Site Location – Guidelines for Choosing the Best Site
1. Don’t construct a pond across an all-season stream.
2. Determine the upslope watershed size – maximum of no more than 40 acres and minimum of no less that 5 acres for every 1-acre pond size area.
This is the upslope watershed for a 1.5 acre pond. Water from the surrounding fields keep the pond filled and fresh.
3. Less than 5 acres watershed may not fill the pond or provide enough water to keep it full, due to evaporation. (Remember the Water Cycle?)
4. Watersheds larger than 40 acres/acre of pond size can produce enough runoff during a storm to wash out or break the dam. (You are responsible for all damages down-flow from your pond if the dam is destroyed.)
5. Examine the land use of the upslope watershed. Where is the water coming from? Are there golf courses, greenhouses, barn yards, crop fields, industrial sites? Maybe residential sites or pastures? You need to think about contamination from pesticides, herbicides, chemical, manure, etc. What do you think future development of the upslope watershed will be?
6. If you have concerns about the watershed you might be able to divert the runoff away from your pond.
7. Some ponds use subsurface drainage (i.e. drain tile) to fill the pond. Tile water is about 99% filtered free of pesticides and fertilizers.
8. Grasslands and woodlands have less runoff than other areas. Parking lots, highways, roof tops have the maximum runoff during a storm.
9. If you don’t have enough watershed, roof spouting and footer drainage tile can supplement your pond.
This pond is filled with spouting runoff from the house and tile drainage from surrounding grass ways.
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10. Garden and lawn runoff may need to be diverted due to applications of fertilizers and pesticides. (Side note: Stop killing those dandelions! They are improving your lawns fertility as they pull nutrients from the deep soil to the surface.)
11. Proper watershed planning helps you to maintain a healthy pond and prevent problems later on.
12. Remove all vegetation from the pond site, including surrounding areas. Leaving trees and brush in the pond bottom for fish will only cause the pond to die faster. All ponds fill in due to soil erosion and it dies. How you construct and manage the pond determines its life span.
13. When removing all trees and brush from the pond site create wildlife brush piles or stack it to be burned. Don’t let the contractor bury the brush on the backside of the dam. As the brush decays, it leaves open areas in the dam for water to wash soil away, causing the dam to leak.
14. As my dad always said, “Whatever you bury, you will have to dig up someday. It’s harder to dig up than bury.”
15. Before construction begins, plan several areas for top soil storage to use later for finishing the landscaping around the pond.
16. The pond worksite should be twice the size of the finished pond. You need room for the brush pile, top soil piles, dry side soil storage, wet side soil storage, and a special site to store clay for the dam core.
17. Soil components are not equal and will be separated as they are removed during digging the pond. Planning for storage and soil availability is essential to move soil easily and cost effectively. Contractors often charge by the hour. Efficiency and pre-planning equals money saved.
18. If possible, plan on constructing an upslope small sediment pond before the water enters the pond. A sediment pond collects eroding soil before it enters the larger pond. The sediment pond is usually a narrow, shallow pond that allows the sediment to be removed easily. This will help prevent your larger pond from filling in, requiring a large excavation project later.
The area surrounded by trees is a sediment pond. Watershed flow comes into this small pond and the soil runoff collects here. This smaller pond is much easier, and less expensive, to clean out, maintaining the depth of the larger pond.
This is a dying pond. Constructed in the late 1950's, the erosion from fields and runoff from highway ditches, the pond has filled in and has become a swamp. This is typical of ponds which are not maintained.
This 1.5 acre pond is well maintained with water running into a small sediment pond before entering the main pond. It is just a few years younger than the pond above, which is only a swamp now.
19. I started by saying that pond construction is not a “DIY” or YouTube video project. I haven’t even started to discuss how the pond is shaped, dam construction (core key), mechanics of overflow systems or the landscaping around the pond. Don’t be overwhelmed – this is a very doable project and it adds great value to your homestead and farm.
Please use your free experts and plan before you start. It’s bad if your pond washes out, but it really gets ugly when your neighbors downstream sue you for damages.
Next time we will cover pond and dam construction.
Until then,
Bob
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