Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Should I do this?

Alright, this is my first question, and it might not be a good idea, but I thought I would ask.

I have a .23 acre pond and the water level is 3' down, and is located 40 yards downhill from my house. I have 2 drain spouts on the front of my house that unlike the rest, they are not channeled underground away from the house. So, while I was thinking about getting water away from the house, I could not help but think about piping the rainwater down to the pond.

It is a standard asphalt roof. Would I be introducing toxic oil, chemicals off of the roof if I did this? Is this a good idea? I'm just thinking it would speed up the filling of the pond from summer drought.

Thanks,

Stormin

I'd do it, but that's just me.

There could be some local regulations that would be worth exploring, quietly.

I think that would be just fine.

http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/stormwater/PublicationFiles/RooftopRunoff2009.pdf

Thank you for the replies and information. I think I will try it out, it would certainly be taking care of two jobs in one if it would not hurt anything, such as the fish.

Stormin

I did the same setup for my neighbor with his downspouts from his pole barn. Works great. Helps to keep his pond level higher.

Every little bit helps!

I'd do it too. It might not be a bad idea to let the water run thru a couple of bales of hay or some kind of filteration before it enters the pond.

I have all drains from the steel roof on my home piped into our pond. I also have the option of directing one of my two sump pumps into the pond. While this is my first full year of the pond I was very pleased with how much more water I was able to capture with the few rains we had in Ohio this summer than my neighbors ponds which relied only on run off.

I am not sure about an asphalt shingle roof but I would have to imagine it would be safe.

So I did have a good idea after all. I'm glad to see others have done this. I was almost hesitant to ask after a guy at work thought it was a bad idea. Glad I asked. Thanks for the responses everyone.

Stormin

Looks like they are all talking about a steel roof. Asphalt roofing may contain chemicals one may not want in a pond.

Which is what the guy at work was saying. He was worried about the oil in the asphalt.

Stormin

I was thinking more of fire retardants and bonding stuff. Not necessarily oil's that would leach out.

No need to guess... http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/stormwater/PublicationFiles/RooftopRunoff2009.pdf

Reading that test leads me to believe that even with an asphalt roof you are O.K.

The other thing to consider is the amount of water going into the pond from your roof vs. the amount of water that is already in your pond. That will dilute the roof runoff even further.

I live in a mountainous region where underground water wells are not always practical.

We get water from wherever we can, and pretty much everyone has found safe ways to capture and use it -- no matter where it comes from.

Many in this area still rely on cisterns that date back hundreds of years, filled from roof water. (We also have a lot of year-around springs / artesian wells, that provide water to many.)

For a number of years, we had a weekend-home several miles from here that had a large roof-filled cistern. No one would put a well on the property due to large caverns below the ground surface, but not deep enough for a water well. The last time a well driller came onto that property, he lost his bits and other equipment about 60 feet down when they hit a large cavern. When that happens, all the other well drillers in the area quickly find out what happened, and they make these properties off-limits for well drilling.

The water that came off the roof went through a nearly 200 year old ingenious diverter, until lots of water started flowing. That kept most of the dirt and debris from getting into the cistern filter. The filter was quite old, and was just a cement box that was about 12 x 12 x 36 inches, with a heavy cement lid. About once a year, I would replace the charcoal in this box. I also added about a cup of chlorine to the cistern about once a month -- as this was also our drinking water. To the best of my knowledge, no one was ever sickened by this water. We used it for drinking water, cooking, toilet flushing, showering, and clothes washing.

Eventually, we bought the house across the road -- actually on the other side of a ridge, which had a good well -- at 630 feet deep, and we legally made an agreement to share the well amongst these two properties.

Our church and cemetery, which sit atop a mountain that lets us see four different states, has a minimal well that is safe for consumption -- but we still have a cistern that fills from the church roof. It was built in about 1841, and is still fully functional.

It provides the water we use for flushing the indoor toilets, watering the shrubbery, and for watering the old-old cemetery which has been there since 1839.

The house I mentioned above with the 630 foot well, had about a 1/3 acre fish pond. It was nearly always at full pool. The majority of the water came from the house roof, the garage/workshop roof, and the chicken coop roof. The house had asphalt shingles. The other buildings had metal roofs. Inexpensive 4-inch sewer pipe connected to the downspouts to fill the pond. The fish in the pond were pretty happy and tasty.

We never saw any negative effects of using the roof water to feed the pond.

In my 65 year lifetime, I've also consumed a lot of roof runoff water. Yes -- I'm crazy as a loon, but I don't think it has anything to do with the water.

Regards,
Ken

Many people around here still use cisterns, and like Ken I've never heard of anyone having health problems from it. I wouldn't hesitate to use runoff from a shingled roof for my pond.

Thanks again for the additional information and suggestions. It will be a good project for me in a few weeks.

Stormin

I know that Tilapia are one of the more forgiving fish, but I use what rain water I can for them and it comes off of a shingled roof right into their 300 gallon tank. I have yet to loose any fish (at least due to water). So I too am one that would not hesitate utilizing that option if it were one for me and legal to do so.

Thanks

Remember that rainwater has almost zero dissolved salts or any other form of PH-buffering. Add some CaCL to the water so that the PH doesn't go all over the map between day and night. This may not matter in a pond with materials in the soil which will add buffering for you, but a strictly rain-filled pond will be very vulnerable to huge swings in PH. (Rubber lined for example)

I used to use rainwater for a large aquarium, but ran into PH problems from the lack of buffering. I started to use CaCL powder and small amounts of sea salt to treat the water first, and my aquarium thrived. Then I went back to well water, and all was, um, well.

BTW CaCL is not a perfect buffer, the PH will still move, but it slows it depending on concentration.