I built my ponds on the top of the hill so I have very little watershed. Chalk it up as mistake number 135 out of too many to count. Anyway, the well has to run about a lot to keep the ponds full which as many can guess is expensive (not too expensive compared to the other mistakes).

I have about 2 acres of watershed above the ponds, sloping down at 1 ft per 12 ft. I am thinking if I built diversion ditches, (swales) to harvest water and move the water, the harvested runoff could significantly help my well running problem. Above the ponds the land is 300 ft wide and 200 ft long.

The ditches would collect runoff and be sloped fast enough to move water along the contour of the land down to the fishing pond but gentle enough grade to allow some of the sediment to fall out. At the end of the run I would build a small basin to hopefully allow the rest of sediment to fall out.

Any ideas, advice etc...
1. spacing between ditches to maximize water catch, every 100 ft, 50 ft?? digging by hand so don't kill me!

2. Should I line the ditches over lay them with clay and tamp down? I don't want water draining out bottom of ditch.

3. How wide and deep?

thanks

Spacing probably depends on how fast the water soaks into the ground. Here, even with sandy soil, the water soaks into the ground right away. If it doesn't, that means that the ground is saturated and it will run over the top of the ground for a ways, so 100' spacing would be more than close enough.

Yes on the clay in the swale. Once you got the water to the swale you'e want to keep every last drop in it as much as you can.

I think that by having some grass growing in the swale and by having a sediment pond before it hits the main pond you would precipitate out most of the sediment. Sediment shouldn't be a problem at all if the watershed has vegetation on it.

Hey Kurt,

When you say you are going to "line the ditches," do you mean with a fabric like a stream liner?

Kurt, you might contact your local NRCS agent. In my case he came out and laid out our pond and also laid out a terrace to capture water adding to my watershed area. My pond, like yours, is located close enough to the top of a hill it also has limited runoff. The terrace about doubles the runoff area.

In the picture below the sheds tend to be at about the top of the hill. So everything to the right of the picture the water flows down to the terrace and the terrace enters the pond towards the bottom of the picture just below the south most shed.

Even though your project might be much smaller, the NRCS agent could determine and lay out a lot for you if he will. Save you some experimenting time.

Also here is a thread about my sediment pond recently built. You might need something more like what I call my pre-sediment pond towards the end of the thread.

snrub's sediment pond

direct link to pre-sediment pond Water from the field terrace enters the pre-sediment pond via the double culverts in the picture where a farm road goes over the tops of the culverts.

Thanks,

I have been trying to come up with a way to catch water. I think this is the way to help with my shortage of water.

I have many, many 10 x 20 3 mil plastic liners (free) that I can fold in half to increase thickness. I was thinking to then lay the sod that I cut out back over the swale banks and liner.

I have already built a waterfall/small stream that will step the water down from the ditch into a small sediment pond then overflow into the main pond. With grass in the swale and the rocks and the sediment pond it should drop out much of the sediment.

digging by hand will make this a little larger project so pictures in a couple of years.

Do those liners have UV inhibitors in the plastic? If not, they might not last a year in the sun.