Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Ground water pond internet consultation

Bear with me on this guys... I am about to throw ALOT of information out there to hopefully have a discussion on a ground water pond I want to put on some property my wife and I are closing on tomorrow!

The property is 1500 feet long and 165 feet wide.
The back 4 acres are wooded.
The front have of these woods are a flood zone (I can put a pond there but NOT use the dirt there)
the rear half are a floodway and everything is off limits there (bad location anyways.

My land is a 2% grade from road to creek. The creek is a large creek that flows year round and spills its banks (6 feet banks ish) around twice a year on average.

Across the street is a large hill maybe 40 extra feet in elevation that I believe will either cause runoff on the property (no evidence of that) or will create a constant supply of ground water for a ground water based pond.

The soils are (according to the soil borings) well drained soils but have a high water table. The location of these well drained soils and where I want to put the pone is around 250 feet away and the pond location would be around 5 feet of elevation lower.

The property next door has a small pond on it that looks like it has been there for a LOOOONG time and the neighbor says it has had water in it for the 12 years he has lived there. He did say the water dropped around 2 feet during last years drought.

I don't think I will find any clay since its mostly all terrace soils.

Only a hundred feet or so behind where I want to put the pond there is already standing water most of the year in the gullies that are created by either flooding or just surface runoff.

I guess I am wanting know know if the powers that be on here think that I will be successful. The coal is a 1/4 acre pond for bluegill, swimming, and just general enjoyment for my boy and I.

Here are the photos.

The brown area is the large hill across the road that drains towards the brown line which is the creek. The red is the proposed location of the pond.

Close up number two is of a better idea as to what I am thinking about the location of the pond... Notice you can see the neighbors pond which I will have a picture of later.



Number three is an even closer view.



Here are some photo's of the area with standing water further back on the property which tells me that the water table is probably pretty high.





Here is a photo of the creek on the back of the property (it will matter for a question I will ask after this post.)



And last but not least a quick photo of the pond next door.... My pond would only be around 75 feet away from this pond. but will be better maintained.

So now the next question. Lets say the pond IS feasible. the county will require an overflow pipe buried probably to the creek. I wanted to run the overflow just to the lower areas which are essentially ditches for drainage but she told me w/ no degree of certainty that I will probably have to run the pipe all the way to the creek. My concern is that during heavy rain when the pond needs to drain the most I will actually be getting back flow from the creek. Or maybe not since I don't think the creek will ever come high enough to be above the level of the pond, but that's more of a surveyor issue. What concerns would you guys have running the overflow pipe into an area that you KNOW will flood? Perhaps is as simple as putting an anti backflow device on the pipe?

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=330504#Post330504

I think the pond will work. You may have some issues like I do with groundwater fluctuation levels. Definately try NOT to have an overflow pipe going all the way to the creek for the reason that you mentioned - water backing from the creek to the pond.

Give it a real good guesstimate on what will be the lowest water level in the pond. Taper the pond banks above that level at no sharper than 3:1, less slope is better because of you having to walk on the slope to get to the water.

Dig the pond deeper than you think necessary, you will be glad that you did. Shoot for 12' depth from lowest water level over 30% of the pond if you can - it will be easier for the fish to survive the winter and summer. I would not stock Northern Bluegills, but instead stock Fathead Minnows as soon as you have a couple of feet of water in the pond. Then 4+ months later stock Hybrid Bluegills. Stock 15-20 Hybrid Striped Bass in the pond too, but another half year or so after the HBG.

When you are digging the pond, rent or buy a 3" or 4" semi-trash pump. Keep pumping the water out as you dig - you want to see what you are digging.

Can you use some of the dirt that you excavate to build a berm around the pond to prevent flood waters from entering the pond, but not enough that you disrupt the natural flow of water across your property? If you don't, I'd bet that you will have Green Sunfish and possibly other fisn entering your pond with the flood waters.

My plan as of right now is a 6-1 slope most of the way down then a sharp dropp off at around 6 feet of depth to hopefully 12 feet deep or deeper if I can secure the proper places to put soil... the problem is with all the permitting. I will need the hancock county surveyor so sign off on the pond design. I will need the neighbor to sign off on the 20 feet of undisturbed soil by the property line during construction (which I am 99 percent sure he will be fine with). I will need the surveyor (who acting in the capacity of the flooplain administrator) to approve using the soil in the flood hazard area to be able to spread the soil out and grade it towards the pond to alleviate a few wetspots that will become the wooded part of my back yard as well as using the soil to build the berm around the pond. Ill need the the Indiana DNR water division to approve digging a ditch through the floodway to allow my overflow pipe to go to the creek. The surveyor said I could NOT run the overflow pipe to one of the natural drainage ditches that run to the creek anyways. Since I will be digging that ditch for the overflow I figure I might as well tie a perimeter drain from the septic into the same ditch running to the creek and kill two birds with one stone.... ill just have to divert the perimeter drain outlet tile around the pond which wont be a big deal.

There is ALOT that can go wrong before all the stars align. If I can get the neighbor who is not currently using the pasture next to me and only plans to put cattle on it anyways, to allow me to let my contractor just dozer the dirt across both of our properties and level it out then I will not have to haul a single truckload of dirt and I think I can get the cost of the pond to 5k if I did the ditch myself and provide the piping.

When I talked to the surveyor initially she just kept telling me how difficult it would be to get all the proper permissions, but its not her job to tell me how hard it is, its her job to tell me what I need to do to get approval.

I think a two foot berm around the pond will suffice to keep the flood waters away.

if only you were a bit closer to eastern hancock county... you could help me design the pond and put it in for me... nobody has quoted me a decent price at all that knows much about ponds.

Thanks.