Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help The uncloggable drain

I've got a 3 acre pond with a 15" overflow spillway drain that is clogged and is 13 " below water now . Before I was raped by my local plumber service for $629.00,

I tried capping it off to build up pressure to release the debris-nothing;

I extended the pipe above water and allowed it to drain (16 ft down and still couldn't see debris) then removed the extension hoping the falling water pressure would push the clog through-nothing ;

I then poked and prodded and pulled with a little bit of everything and came up with some guts of a goose-nothing;

Then i called in my local plumbers who snaked both the inlet and outlet and came up with half a goose topside-but still nothing

Is there any other way to go here after your plumber fails? I've got trees falling in the water and docks floating away, and whoever made this pond made the emergency runoff trench run slightly uphill, so it's pooling into my front yard slowly. I'm looking for someone in the Erie, Pa area who may specialize in helping me out somehow short of digging out the pipe (which by the way is surrounded by a 4 ft wide by 20 ft tall concrete ring, because the pipe kept falling over I was told.

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

Sounds to me like the pipe may be collapsed. What's the pipe made of, and how long has it been in the ground?

First, to relieve some pressure from the situation, I would consider a siphon. Do you have any flexible hose on the property? If so, I would try to set up several siphons to begin lowering the lake.

It's not normal for debris to completely clog a pipe beyond 16 feet unless there's a 90 degree elbow at the bottom. Even then, it's not normal for a 15" pipe to completely stop flowing. How far did the plumber get into the pipe from the backside?

I would call and talk with Pond Dam Piping and Southeastern Pipe and Drain and tell them your dilemma and see if they have any ideas. Pond Dam Piping is Keith Johnson at (800)689-6703. They are in Macon, Georgia and specialize in designing pond piping materials as does Souheastern. Call them at (800)468-7564. They are in Aiken, S.C.

Tell them I told you to call.

Let us know what happens.

Hello, F-7, and welcome to the Forum.

Stand by for better ideas.

P.S. I see they beat me to the post.

F-7,welcome to the forum.Im afraid Im not gonna be much help,other than to suggest lookig in the pipe from downhill with a GOOD flashlite and see if you see anything,which Im sure you already did.Personally,Im a dynamite kinda guy.

I second the thought of starting an emergency siphon to try and keep the water from getting any higher and causing more problems.

Are you saying that you've gotten parts of a goose from the plugged drain?

Personally, I'd be leery of trying to unplug it from the downstream side. Just because of the volume of water that would come out once the plug is removed! I could just picture myself trying to unplug it from the downstream side, and getting blasted by a huge amount of water once the plug let go.

Where's yer sense of adventure?Here,hold my beer and..........