Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Overflow System

My lowest pond in a series of three has an overflow system at the dam. The discharge pipe is approximately 4" diameter and appears to be SCH 40. This discharge pipe is almost parallel to the direction of the dam. I'm interested in finding the routing of the pipe through the dam to it's location in the pond (for maintenance and other issues). To this point I have been unsuccessful and would appreciate advice/methods on how to locate the pipe without (obviously) tearing my dam apart. A discharge pipe almost parallel with the dam implies a 30 - 90 degree bend from it's source end. Is this common?
Thanks,
Doug

Good morning Doug and welcome to Pond Boss. Hang on and one of the dam experts will be along to answer your questions. So you have three ponds in a series? I like to hear more about your ponds, what are their sizes, what do you have stocked in them etc. Post some photos of the ponds if you have them.

Thanks for joining in and posting, we're glad you found us!

One of the experts should be along shortly.

Howdy, Doug! Interesting problem.

I hope someone comes up with an easier approach than ground penetrating radar.

Have you tried poking a long straight (rod? pipe?) up from the discharge end? That could at least get you the position of the last leg. Perhaps the remainder would be more obvious to deduce, knowing that (and where the entrance is).

My dirt guy uses a probe that is inserted into the end of the pipe. He can pick up the signal from the probe head from the surface. He uses it to locate the path of field tiles.

If you are just looking to find the end of the pipe, could you neck down the end that is accessible far enough so you could connect a tank of compressed air or an air compressor? As for finding the routing, I have no idea.

Gas well drillers here wrap their polyethylene transmission lines with 14 gage tracer wire. The well tenders carry a gizmo in their trucks that can detect the tracer. Maybe a metal fishtape threaded thru your pipe would work as well.

Good thought JSEC. If you could run something metal through it and it wasn't buried too deeply, some sort of metal detector might give you an idea which direction it starts and where it ends. You could extrapolate or make an educated guess from that info.

Depending on how electrical savvy you are and what kind of equipment you have access to....you could try to pass a small current through the water and measure it. Your water/soil conductivity will make a difference. Might try starting with a 9 volt battery or a couple 9 volt batteries in series and a good digital multimeter. Put one wire inside the discharge pipe stream and the other on the end of a pvc pipe. You could move the pvc pipe around on the inside of the pond and look where the current (amps) is the greatest.

I would stay away from using higher voltages as it and water are deadly.

Doug welcome to this place
I think I missed something How does water get into the pipe in the first place?