Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations silt chambers

Hello everyone i have a question regarding pond design that may have been answered before but i could not find any info in the search directory. here is my qustion. i am planning on renovating my 1/4 acre pond in september, i want to steepen the edges and place stone arround the edges to try and keep out some of the reed grasses that grow arround here . my thought was to dig the edges 3' deep and then level it off for about 6' and then sloping the rest to the bottom. i wanted to create a slight berm before the final drop off to collect the silt. that way i could keep some of the silt from settleing to the bottom so when i lower the water levels in the fall i could just clean the "silt trap" instead of having to dredge the bottom. has anybody heard of this tecqnique? would it work?

Look over these posts:
http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000174;p=1#000006
Heres a few pics:

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b165/ahvatsa/

Duane, what feeds (water) to your pond.....a creek, well, etc.?

The type of sediment trap design I am familiar with would be built on upstream side of pond to catch sediment from incoming water source, and keep sediment from getting into main body of pond.

I've never heard of having a perimeter ledge as a sediment trap.....suppose it could work, but you'd probably be better off mitigating the erosion to your pond above the water line, although the fish would probably love the ledge (and berm).

my little 2c.

Duane, What I have noticed with my pond which has some areas that happened to come out (not designed) with a berm like you are suggesting is it probably won't work well and will probably increase erosion. What will happen at the berm is the water will be damned on refilling causing a break in your berm at the weaker points. When the weaker points break huge amounts of eroding water will flow thru, this path of water movement will continue ie Grand Canyon.

If you do opt to construct the berm I would suggest that you ensure that the walls have sufficient thickness to hold the water.

duane, to stop canary reed grass, or any other grass, try POAST herbicide, they are toast. wont hurt sedges or forbs. dont walk on those steep edges or install boardwalk.

Thanks for all the imput guys it is very much appriciated. my pond is fed by rainwater and probably some underground springs, so i am not sure how i would employ an upsteam setteling pond. Don good point on the erosion problem exactly what i am trying to avoid. my first plan was to dig the edges eiter 2:1 or 3:1 and line with riprap udown to at least 3' then continue the slope 3:1 or 4:1 to the basin. looks now like i may wind up draining the entire pond letting it dry out and get a bulldozer and a track hoe in to clean out the years of sediment.