I put in a pond last summer; about 1.5 acres. The dam has a plastic culvert that drains it. However, I noticed yesterday that a very small amount of water seems to be draining right under the culvert on one side of it. the recess that the water is draining into is big enough to slip about 2 or 3 of my finders into.

The dam is built out of good clay and seems to be doing well otherwise. My question is: How big of a deal is this? Is this the beginning of a huge problem or is it normal for a small dam? Is there any way to plug this leak immediately?

Thanks for any suggestions!

lwood:

Welcome to PB. Where in Indiana are you?

Do you know of the plastic pipe has anti-seep collar (or collars) placed on it before the dam was completed? Is the pipe one piece, or is it joined in the depths of the dam somewhere? Was the soil compacted around the pipe with a tamper (whacker packer or plate compactor) as it was put in place?

Unfortunately, I don't think there is an easy way to fix the leak. It might take digging up the pipe....

there are two anti-seep collars on the pipe; one on the lake side of the dam and another on the downhill side. The pipe is not one piece, but is multiple pieces joined together. As for soil compaction, I do not believe that it was compacted in any way other than with a large excavator.

And, I definitely don't want to dig up the damn pipe!

How long is your pipe? What type of plastic is it made of? What diameter? Did you have a contractor build the pond?

I dont think the whole pipe will need to be dug up but it definitely needs to be corrected. What we would probaly do is dig back to the closest seep collar. From there we would loosen all material around collar and wet area extremely well somewhat muddy. Then re-pack material. This should seal off leak if you have good clay, wet it down really well and re-pack well.This is how we install pipes in lakes. We have had good luck so far.