Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Erosion / run off , 1 ft deep cut

Where the main runoff source of water fills the pond, it has created about a 1x1" cut out in the pond going down the bank.
I have added some non-woven geotextile along with some rocks to help control the erosion. Once pond fills to normal level should not be much more erosion I do not believe. Is there anything more I should do currently?

Pictures: bank not as steep as it looks.

I have the exact same problem. My cut is probably 2 foot deep or deeper and about 18 inch wide.I don't want to "reroute" the water because I would just have multiple deep ruts!! I am anxious to here what everyone has to say on this subject also.

Could you route the water through some large corrugated drain pipe, at least partially buried?

When my pond was filling I put bales of straw in a couple of offset rows of 3-4 bales each to slow the water down until the pond was full.

IMO your rocks may help some but the water may just cut the bank and flow along the sides of it. I would slow the water down more and spread the flow out. I had a lot bigger erosion issues than you do. I took a suggestion from Snrub here on the forum to cover the erosion areas with wide bands of rip rap and slow the water down. IMO, in your case, a wide band (maybe 4 to 6 feet) of large rip rap would be great as it will be good habitat for crayfish as well as substrate for periphyton and bacterial colonies once the pond fills. It will also continue providing erosion control to keep that area of the shore from washing out during a big rain event. Here's what I did. The long waterway (I have two of these) in the pic was eroded 2 to 3 feet deep by about 3 feet wide. I have no erosion issues now. You obviously don't need anything this large scale but it will at least give you the idea. (This pic was taken at low pool. When the pond is full, you can't see the rip rap along the shore.)

Bill, just to get an idea of the size of that rock (hard for me to tell in the photo) are they baseball size? grapefruit? What would be the smallest you would recommend? I like what you did. Did you do that all the way around your pond? Have you noticed if it draws snakes to hide in the rocks?

The rip rap I used varies in size. I guesstimate 3 to 8 inches. IMO the bigger stuff is better if you are looking for crayfish habitat. I originally put it approx. half way around as that is where I had erosion issues. I've added some more just because I had some left over from another project. No sign of snakes so far. That might be a different story in Texas.

Mix half-dollar sized crushed and smaller stone in the run, and it will keep the textile pinned down to the soil slowing the water more. It will be critical to prevent too much water from under-running the fabric. Make the run is 3X-4X wider so when you get some heavy rains, it can hold it.

I had the same issue when my pond was first dug, and over the years the erosion exposed rock that was embedded in the soil so the erosion slowed down considerably. I did what you did without the fabric and more mixed stone, but it wound up causing problems when we had some flooding since the flow exited the area I filled with stone. It made a mess. I since made it wider and manually excavated and placed stone, clay, etc to force the water over large stones. Now vegetation is holding things together pretty well.

Thanks for the replies, I will try to break up the main water entry on the top of the pond with some more rocks and add some smaller to geotextile. I am going to get grass going in this area ASAP once the weather warms so hopefully that helps some as well. On the level above the pond that flattens out but the water funnel towards should I just plant grass or will this continue to be a damp area that would be best just putting down rocks / gravel etc?