OK. I'm back. We were without Internet for the last several days due to bad storms that took out major Internet distribution site about 25 miles from here.
We've gotten 5-1/2 to 6 inches of rain in the last four days. Three of those inches came last night. I awoke to some pretty high and fast flowing water this morning. I was actually picking trout and hybrid bluegill out of the bushes below my put-and-take pond.
Anyway, at times like this, I'm really glad I have my settlement ponds and mini-wetlands -- or whatever you want to call them. With about 6-inches of rain, my ponds are still basically clear -- that is, they are not muddy.
My little ponds and my wetland areas mostly slow down the water. Even with a lot of water current through these ponds, it slows things down enough so that leaves, soil particles, and other detritus, sink to the bottom before going out the drains and over the rock walls I've put in place.
My settlement ponds don't filter all of the water, but they filter the main supplies. My small wetlands filter other runoff that comes down broad areas.
I have two main ponds. The uppermost pond receives much of its water via a ravine that drains 40-80 acres. Two of the pond's sides are also saturated with water that weeps into the pond nearly year around. The main water source for this pond is via a settlement pond that is about 10 feet wide, by about 15 feet long. It has two 8-inch by 12-foot long PVC pipes that extend through a small dam that is about 10-feet across. The lower pipe is about two-three feet above the bottom of this settling pond. The second pipe is about five feet above the bottom of this pond. Now and then water will go over the small dam. It was doing so this morning because the upper pipe was clogged with branches and leaves -- but they didn't go into the pond below.
Here are a couple of photos of the uppermost settling pond:
This pond has three 8-inch outlet pipes, plus an emergency overflow that is about 8-foot wide and filled with 6/8 rip/rap. The top of the rip rap is at the height of the top of the main outlet pipes.
Here is what it looks like coming out of the three outlet pipes, with the water on its way to the main pond via three more settlement ponds. One can be seen in about the middle of this photo. The main/lower pond can be seen beyond.
Here are a few other views of the middle settlement pond that is located between the two main ponds. It is about 15' x 30' and about 3-foot deep.
This is the last settlement pond where water enters the main pond from the upper pond.
What can't be seen in these photos are the rock dams (rock piles) in the water path. I have stacked a lot of large rocks at the entrance to each settling pond. They not only catch debris, but they slow down the water, causing less erosion. Over time, vegetation has grown between these rocks, causing even more water cleansing.
I clean these ponds out about once per year with my backhoe. I would estimate that I take out about two-feet of rotting leaves and muck from the upper most settlement pond. The last settlement pond collects about a foot of muck and leaves.
I also created a wetlands area that cleanses the water during times like this week. When we first bought this place, it was a muddy barren and eroded area. It flooded regularly, so I couldn't get grass to grow. I built a series of three dams from barley straw bales. They dams were about 30 feet long, and separated from each other by about 10 feet. During dry times I built beds for things like horse radish. Eventually, I got some grass to grow, which was eventually overtaken by wetland plants. This area stays wet at least nine months out of the year. It is hard to mow or bush hog, but it sure cleans a lot of nutrients out of the water flowing down the hill. The straw bales completely disintegrated several years ago.
The bottom pond also has an 8-foot wide emergency overflow area. Its bottom is about 18 inches above the main overflow. This morning, it had over a foot of water running through it. It usually has water in it less than once per year.
Good luck,
Ken
