I am trying to determine the size of pond I can put on this land. I have attached potential areas and topo map. Area receives an avg of 48 inches a year. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. I also have thought of drilling a well that could pump about 50 GPM to keep it full? Any help
How much evaporation for that area a year?
How fdo I find that info? Found something that looked like 46 inches?
I found that. Hard to read for me though.
My part of SE NE receives 29" annually, and the NRCS rough formula is 33 acre watershed for 1 acre pond average depth wholly dependent on precipitation. I think you could manage a 1.5-1.75 acre pond easily based on the precipitation numbers and supplemental irrigation - maybe push it to 2 acres. Depending on your goals it may make sense to create 3 half acre ponds, mini ponds are easier to manage and you can establish different fisheries. You could even create a few forage cells as well which are a big help.
Looks like annual rainfall = evaporation for your area. I would contact a builder or consultant in your area because a pond can be a fairly large investment. The general rule would be 10:1 on watershed
Calculate the price of electricity to pump that much water. It might not be a viable option.
I was told it was like $30 a month to pump 24/7 a 50gpm pump from my well person. I was really wanting a 5+ acres pond on this site.
That sounds awfully cheap.
I thought so too. It would be a 5 inch pipe with hp pump I believe. He said $30-40 a month.
I spend $450/mo pumping 24/7 40 GPM 5 HP pump at 170ish feet so I agree it sounds on the light side to me. Entirely depends on the depth of your static water level and size of pump needed.
I recommend contacting NRCS ask them for recommendations on watershed size for 5 ac pond. Talk with local pond owners, they'll provide critical information also regarding watershed size needed for pond size.
Again, multiple ponds are an option I'd encourage you to consider - IMO from a fishery standpoint there's not appreciable difference between fishery potential in a 2 ac pond vs 5 ac - and a 2 ac pond is far cheaper/easier to manage. Multiple ponds open up lots of possibilities.
Just FYI
5 acre is a nice size pond. Based on your topo map, and my own pond cost, figure $15-20K per acre for construction. I started out at 6 acres, then he told me how many yards of dirt he would be removing. I knew what the $/yard was, so I had to rethink my pond size.