Hi everyone! So glad I found this site. My wife and I own a new Christmas tree farm in Fluvanna County, VA. It will still be 5-7 years before the trees are ready for harvest (choose and cut) so in the mean time it's plant, plant, plant! We have 60 acres total with about 12 in trees. Last summer we lost our 3/4 acre pond in the earthquake that hit Mineral, VA. We were 10 miles from the epicenter. Anyway, the pond was built probably 60 years ago and I don't think it was ever dredged since then. I pumped out the remaining water and moved the fish (Bass, Bluegill, some perch) to a neighbor's pond. We removed about 4 feet of muck and then dredged it much deeper. Right now it's about 9 feet at its deepest point. The damn was constructed to hold back a small spring but most of the fill comes from run-off in the pastures (no livestock, just grass). As of today (almost a year later) the water is very muddy from runoff where there is no grass or weeds at the shoreline and down the bank to the water. It still has a good ways to go before it hits full. I'm sure I will be asking lots of questions about how to get rid of the muddy water, types of fish for restocking, etc. I can tell you that before we lost the pond i installed a windmill aeration system that worked very well to clear the pond of weeds and algae. It also gave the fish a huge oxy. boost and made them lively and bigger. That system is in the pond now and I'm sure adds to some of the muddy look. Anyway, enough rambling. Good to be here. I'll read and post more later. Thanks! Fred.
Many years ago, we had a home in the Cuckoo Magisterial District, just north of the metropolitan outskirts of Bump Ass, in Louisa County. I still have a number of old friends in Mineral, Louisa, Orange, and parts of Fluvanna.
I'm at least a 125-150 miles northwest of you. The earthquake fractured my concrete block garage walls, did some serious damage to our church ceiling and walls, and destabilized a number of big tombstones in our cemetery.
After Lake Anna was built, that whole area got a lot more concerned about runoff, sediment, minerals, contaminants, etc. It may be very worthwhile to check with the closest NRCS office to determine what can be done.
For your pond, without seeing the lay of the land, and how the water actually enters, I would expect that you need to get a lot of vegetation growing above the pond. In the meantime, a bank of straw bales, particularly oat-straw bales, where the water enters the pond, can be very helpful, until good vegetation can be established.
If you have just a few places where the majority of water enters, it can be very beneficial to put in some small settling ponds. They don't have to be big. Eight to 20 foot diameter, 2 to 4 foot deep. They will catch a lot of the nasties.
As you get little further on this project, I think we can come up with some pretty good stocking suggestions for you.
Sorry to hear about your pond, Fred. Alot of wells had problems, maily in Louisa but also in Fluvanna due to that earthquake, but hadn't heard of any dam failures.
Ironically, my contractor was in the middle of building my dam when the earthquake occurred. They had just brought the center portion of the core back up to original ground, bringing it up in lifts.
Funny, none of us had any idea anything had happened. They were both operating heavy equipment and I was on my lawn mower and we felt nothing. I couldn't figure out why the dog was all freaked out, but then we started getting text messages.
So my big question is... did the vibrations from the quake aid in the compaction of my core, or did it loosen it up like it obviously did yours?
Ken, Thanks for the early suggestions on the muddy waters. There is only one area, about 50 feet long, that has no grass growing on it. Most every other area has some sort of weed or grass growing from the water line up to the full level. Like I mentioned before, I'm sure the windmill aeration system is keeping some of the mud churned up. Once I get this pond at its full mark I'll start working on "muddy water remediation methods". Also looking forward to swimming and fishing in it again. Here are a few pics of what it looked like before the earthquake drained it. You should be able to see the aeration windmill in the background.
Vamaz, The earthquake actually fractured the old, rusted overflow pipe right at the base where it went through the dam. I think it possibly fractured or split the old pipe AND loosened the ground around it and started a sink hole. We filled the old hole with concrete and built a spillway off to one side. This pond is so old that it has huge trees growing on the dam. Dam seems very sound and we did not hit any roots while dredging, so I think it will be Ok. Fred
Very nice looking pond, how did you repair the drainpipe?
We just cut the remainder of the pipe off where it penetrated the dam and filled the hole with concrete. Built a spillway around the side of the dam. Did not want to try and install a new overflow pipe since the dam is so old. And I hate the look of those things anyway!
The frog was made by an artist in Atlanta. We lived in Atlanta for years and I saw the frog sitting in the window of a sculptors studio and just had to have it. "Fred" the frog, as my wife calls him, sat by our pool. Now he has a much better home keeping an eye on our pond on the farm. He's made from hammered copper.
