Greetings from NE GA newbie w/1.5 acre farm pond - 09/15/19 06:57 PM
Hi all!
Got a place about 2 1/2 years ago that included a pond. Never dealt with one before.
It never did hold water well, and the outlet always flowed. I went to a pond class and rule #1 was "No trees on the dam". Ooops - I have about 200 too many.
So I'm attacking the trees, which is slow going. The near-drought this summer has saved me the trouble of pumping most of the water out. The level is well below the treeline now and I'm still getting some flow, but not near as much. The straight vertical piece of PVC sticking up with not so much as even a filter doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence in the construction, so I'm assuming I have a seepage issue.
While there's still a little water above where the drain meets the earth, I'm going to sprinkle in some bentonite - not as a cure for seepage, but to try to fill some void INSIDE the dam.
Then I plan on adding a concrete casing for anti seep, recompacting, adding bentonite, and lining the dam with billboard tarp covered with soil below the water line and gravel above.
Still a lot of work to go! But fortunately it should last pretty much all through fall in GA which is a great time to work on outdoor projects.
Fair warning! I'm going to be full of questions. Hope you don't get sick of me! Hopefully I'll be able to go on to contribute later!
Thanks for looking and best wishes to all!
Got a place about 2 1/2 years ago that included a pond. Never dealt with one before.
It never did hold water well, and the outlet always flowed. I went to a pond class and rule #1 was "No trees on the dam". Ooops - I have about 200 too many.
So I'm attacking the trees, which is slow going. The near-drought this summer has saved me the trouble of pumping most of the water out. The level is well below the treeline now and I'm still getting some flow, but not near as much. The straight vertical piece of PVC sticking up with not so much as even a filter doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence in the construction, so I'm assuming I have a seepage issue.
While there's still a little water above where the drain meets the earth, I'm going to sprinkle in some bentonite - not as a cure for seepage, but to try to fill some void INSIDE the dam.
Then I plan on adding a concrete casing for anti seep, recompacting, adding bentonite, and lining the dam with billboard tarp covered with soil below the water line and gravel above.
Still a lot of work to go! But fortunately it should last pretty much all through fall in GA which is a great time to work on outdoor projects.
Fair warning! I'm going to be full of questions. Hope you don't get sick of me! Hopefully I'll be able to go on to contribute later!
Thanks for looking and best wishes to all!