Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? New England Dam

Hey guys, I'm new here so go easy on me... lol!
Anyway, here's the reason I joined. I gotta repair a dam. I am owner of a campground in CT and I have a 10 acre man-made pond that was constructed back in 1969 by the Army Corps of engineers. The dam system used is a downpipe system and the pipe is approximately 24" and there is an emergency spillway off to the side of the dam. The piping used back then was corrigated steel and rotted through about 20 years ago when my dad was running the place and he did a repair to it by sleeving the inside of the downpipe with a black plastic corrigated pipe (smooth on the inside) and then filled in between the two pipes with hydraulic cement. The pipe he inserted only reaches down about 10 feet into the downpipe and the total length of the original steel one is somewhere around 20' so I can see the end of the plastic repair pipe about 10' down. At this point, the steel corrigated pipe has rotted further and now the pipe is leaking again from between the two sleeved pipes. I know this because The water flowing is not coming over the top as the lake is down about 1'6" right now and the water is still flowing from between the two pipes.

I am going to need to replace this system, I'm afraid, and so before I hire a company to come in and talk to me about it I just wanted to get some opinions on the subject first. Would you recommend a siphon system here in CT? Only thing that scares me about it would be that we get freezing weather here in new england and I know that wouldn't play nice with the intake pipe or vent pipe. My thought would be to bury the intake pipe into the dam and come into the pond below the frost line and under water to avoid this. Any thoughts?

Or should I consider building a wall type dam at the spillway? The only issue with this is that there is a road that crosses the dam and spillway so I would need to bridge the stream (or pipe it).

Any thoughts on the subject would be great before I call a dam guy out so I know what I'm talking about when I deal with him.

Welcome to the forum! Will the Army Core of Engineers fix it? (they buit it).

That's a thought... I hadn't though of that before. I just sent them an email describing my situation. Let's see how they respond. I'll keep you posted when I get a reply.

Lots easier on the pocketbook I'd think if they would step up to the plate.

I think Scott is correct with his thinking...if the Corps of Engineers built it, they must've done it for a purpose. Is it a flood control lake? Why did they build it? That could be important to know as you plot your course.

Many ponds in south central missouri are built by the Corps...Ft Leonardwood is a training base for the engineers and they routinely build dams...often poorly....but that is why it is free labor and equipment as well as called "practice".

Bob, I'm not sure why they built it, probably just for practice like rainman said.... Because its private property not public. I own the lake and the land all the way around it. And when it was built, it was built to be a campground. The lake was built in the late 60s but my family didn't buy the property till 1984. The campground opened in 1969.