Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Drought Oklahoma & Pond

Noble, Oklahoma. I have a pond, which is over 70 years old, about an acre, large 30 foot dam, with deepest water level about 23 feet. Had a large fish kill about 2 years ago. The pond now has no water. Is anyone else having this problem in or around Noble, Oklahoma, and what have you done about it? Drill for a well? Is it from the drought? Could it be something else? Dam leaking?

Yes this is a common problem around Oklahoma. There has been no significant amount of runoff in a few years now. Several people have ponds that never have been dry and currently are dry. All you can do is hope and pray for rain.

The house is a rental property, I live in Colorado. I was considering selling property in Feb., now without the pond....well I would most likely suffer a loss if I sold. This pond, over 70 years old according to state records has never dried up. Is this happening to ponds this large, an acre, this old, and 25 feet deep, in the Noble area? Just seems to hard to believe.

Yeah it is happening all over the state. My guess is that the pond is completely feed by runoff and the ponds haven't had a chance to refill. Old timers say ponds that never have been dry in their lifetime are now dry along with the phrase "I have never seen that before."

This drought is really extreme. Worst since the mid-1950's or the Dust Bowl years.

Sandy, to borrow a phrase "I feel your pain". In 2011 our pond in E. Texas nearly went totally dry. About 18" of muddy water is all we had left,which has only partial refilled. You may want to read about the La Nina effect that is causing the drought. We may have a couple more years of this drought. Your are not alone, most of us in Oklahoma and Texas are in the same shape.

Thank you both for your replies. And yes the pond is fed by run off. Man o man, a beautiful pond it once was ! During the fish kill, we had trophy bass floating, 50 pound catfish, and huge grass crap, all dead. The shores were lined with these poor fellows. I guess the cat-tails will die shortly, which is a good thing. And perhaps in a couple years the pond will be back, that is when the rains return. Watch for pic's..... Again thank you for your replies.

Sandy, if you were driving South on I-35 from KC to OK City you would be lucky to see any ponds with water in them that are fed by run off, including the Arkansas river. In SC Kansas we need 22" of rain just to break even and the future is not looking good.

I live in Indiana and my 15-year-old pond doesn't have much run off and is filled similarly to a rain gauge. Most years it has filled with in a foot or two of the run off pipe. We had a bad drought this last year as the poor corn production will testify and now the pond is still down 3 1/2 feet. It has never been this low at this time of year before. Ponds around me that have lots of run off or fed by a stream are about full but I think my pond tells the true story of what is happening around here, I believe we are into longer lasting drought..

I tried to post a pic of my pond on this site, to show how beautiful it was before when full, but could not do it on this site. I will be traveling to OK this month, and will take a pic with it all dried up, would love to post each side by side. I was there during the fish kill a couple of years ago we tried so hard to safe the fish by pumping air into the water. Ending up picking up 600 pounds of fish and taking them to the dump. And yes they weighted in at 600 pounds. Is anyone drilling for wells? Or would that be a bad idea? Drinking water is on well too, hope that doesn't dry up.

Now I am stressed about well water, has anyone lost their drinking water wells in the Oklahoma area? This would be a financial disaster for me, since this a rental property.

It is dry in lot of places.

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

Read this thread on posting pictures:

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=53932&Searchpage=6&Main=5886&Words=%22posting+pictures%22&Search=true

I know most of Oklahoma does not have good enough ground water to support wells. But every area is different.

For those in Texas, TAMU has a new sight that has a lot of info about climatology with great maps.


A&M Atmospheric Sciences Dept's Maps

Sandy, they others are right, it is just that dry, and has been for the past 3-4 years or so. Also we have had some warm winters which are not helping farmers or ponds.

As for drilling a water well, its hit and miss in my area. It increases your chance if there is already a well close by where you want to drill. However there are NO wells in my area that could support a pond or large water operation like irrigation.

Thanks jakeb.

Sandy, my place at Bowie Tx is about 60 or so miles South of Oklahoma. We got some really good summer rains about 2 or 3 years ago but nothing since. My 1.3 acre water hole is now about 1/4 acre with neither rain nor cool weather in the forecast. About a month ago I got a 1.5 inch rain that raised the pond about 2 inches. I'm now down about 7.5 ft.

Have you had any fish kills,Dave? Do you still feed? My pond is down 53 in. and am afraid of a fish kill.

I know of several ponds that have had fish kills. Personally, 4 of our ponds have had fish kills in the past few years. One from ice cover, the rest from drought. Other ponds are in a serious threat of going dry in the next few months.

Sure hope you guys get some rain. We are not in a severe drought here but my farm is in a really dry area. So much for the saying storms follow the rivers. My heart goes out to the farmers as they are suffering the burnt of this weather pattern. Hopefully next year will be better.

Kenc, my forage pond will probably go in the next 30 days. My "big" pond still seems OK.

Fish kills are hard to avoid when Texas drought shrinks a "perfect" 2 acre pond to 1 acre - currently down about 2ft.
Depth of pond deep enough to handle past record setting drought and prepared for the next one with a 1hp Kasco surface aerator.
If fish farmers use surface aerators to sucessfully grow huge numbers of fish in small brood ponds - it is expected to be good insurance policy against another partial fish kill.

I'm a belt and suspenders guy with a good bottom diffuser system but my bet is on the Kasco!

George, I'm right there with you. I looked hard at O2 options last Fall, and the surface aerator seemed to make the most sense for me in drought situations.

My biggest expense, irregardless of the type aeration I might use, would be getting a power line to it. It would have to be around 1000', and I would have to have that laid on the face of the dam.

I know electrical rates vary greatly, but do you have a monthly ballpark cost of operating the Kasco?

In the D/FW metroplex, my lawn is still green, I'm still running my sprinkler system, using the central a/c, set a new high yesterday of 83 degrees vs normal temp of 61 and a 20% chance of showers in East Texas later in the week.

2012 is the 2nd hottest year on record and the 5th driest. Rain hasn't exactly been plentiful or rainy for the past 4 or 5 years.

The wheat that I planted for the deer to make it through winter is just about gone.

The wheat in many fields around here is only a couple of inches tall. As warm as it has been, the wheat is greatly limited by the lack of moisture. The wheat is starting to go backwards and is needing a rain soon.