Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Dam broke

I bought some property with a 2-3 acre pond and the dam broke. The pond did not have any kind of drain system other than a 8inch pipe at one end of the dam for a over flow. got some heavy rains and water came over the middle of dam and busted. There are trees on the back side of dam and i have removed them with a excavator. There is a small creek running where dam broke. i belive i want to go back with a siphon system but am open for suggestions. my question is about the creek how do i build the dam back with the creek running through it.
Thanks for all the help.

If you are going through the expense to build a new dam I would say have them put in a good overflow pipe. Not that much more $ while there building a new dam.

If you are going through the expense to build a new dam I would say have them put in a good overflow pipe. Not that much more $ while there building a new dam.

Divert the creek to the emergency spillway by using a coffer dam at the hole in the dam. When the dam is fixed break the coffer dam and fix the emergency spillway. Obviously you need a pipe bigger than 8 inches.

Yes i agree the 8 inch pipe was not big engough. i thought about a siphon system

If it were mine, I'd get in touch with the local NRCS and see if they can figure out what your watershed is, that will give you numbers so you can correctly size your overflow pipe, be it a siphon or something else. Make sure the dam is properly compacted with the right type of soil. Ewest is right on about building a coffer dam to get the real dam fixed.

One resource you or anyone might consider is a text book titled: Moving the Earth, The Workbook of excavation by Herbert L. Nichols Jr. It has been around for many years and is in its fifth edition which is still in print. The NRCS may tell you what you have to work with, but this book has hundreds of pages filled with good information on how to go about doing many types of projects including dams. It has pictures, drawings, and is a fairly easy read. Another related book is the Design of Small Dams, a water resources publication by the US Department of Interior. I do not believe it is in print any more. It is highly technical and not an easy read, so don't lose sleep if you can not find a copy as encouraging as the title may sound unless you love to read through algebra and trig equations. There might be a couple of things described in terms of derivatives and integrals too!

lol i just left coondawg.com forums these fellows r steerin u right. they always bust in the middle usually dont allow for enough shrinkage there making it the lowest spot throughout the dam

how much water runnin thru there? can u dam it up upstream for a short time? above all if you need 10' of fill to get back to the top add a extra foot so it dont settle to the lowest spot again if u use a compactor but dont test it add 6" or 5% to be safe. i can honestly say i have never had one wash out in the middle by doing this. start on one side of the pond bottom going deeper as long as you can then divert the water to it and move to the other side. be careful not to get slope to muddy. can u do it in a day?

why didnt your emergency spillway handle the excess? these are just questions runnin thru my fragile mind lookin at 16" of snow outside