Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Building a new pond

I am going to construct a new pond (about 1.5 to 2 acres) and wanted to get some expert opinions. The pond will be located at the end of a small hollow. A generally small creek (average of about one foot wide and 3 inches deep flow) will provide the water. A dam of 12' high(at the natural landscape low point) by 350' long will be constructed. Excavation will be done behind the dam to acquire the desired depth and to provide dam material. A four feet deep core trench will be dug and filled with the best clay at the site (which has a lot of clay content). The dam will have a road accross the top. I want to combine the drain and emergency spillway into a contrete trench accross the top of the dam that would allow for normal drain and be big enough to handle wet conditions. I will install a grating system over this to allow for traffic. My main concern is a bottom drain. Should I install a bottom drain system for clean out purposes? All information would be welcomed. Thank You

You don't need to install a bottom drain. (my opinion only) If you wanted to drain the pond you could install a siphon drain.

I do not want to necessarily drain the pond. I was thinking that a bottom drain might be useful for cleaning debris(leaves, silt, etc) from the bottom of the pond. Would this be useful in avoiding major clean out later.

I can see the appeal of having a drain-but even under the most ideal circumstances, it would likely only be useful for keeping the immediate area clean.

Having extra "features" increases the chances of problems and leaks. I had a 12" drain in my pond-catastrophic malfunction occurred ["Hey, what's that wierd whistling sound?"], and complete drainage of the 2.5 acre pond was prevented only with a 20 ft telephone pole, 80hp tractor and the development of severe hypothermia.

Granted, the pipes were not properly sealed by the pond builder, a mistake which could have been avoided, but the idea of ever having anything perforating the dam of any pond I own gives me the willies now. There are some excellent older threads about siphons and their use draining ponds, I'd definitely go that route.

What about the advantage of a siphon drain that is also the regular overflow drian? I believe that I have seen past post that have done this. I thought the advantage of dispensing water from the pond's bottom is that this water is less beneficial than the surface water?