Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Converting to siphon?

We are curious on the feasibility of converting from a concrete spillway to a siphon for our neighborhood lake. The lake is 97 acres, with a drainage area of about 1400 acres.

Can this be done on a lake of this size, and is it cost effective? We are looking at having to do some work on our spillway, and want to look at our options.

Approx how many, and how large of siphons would we need?

Thanks for any input

Hey William,

I am not a pro but my guess is Yes you can use siphons as a spillway...BUT, I would not eliminate the emergency spillway thinking the siphons can handle whatever Old Ma Nature threw at you in the form of a big rain event.

Again, I am not a pro but I know a lot of the Texas guys can tell you about BIG rain events.

Hopefully, a pro will check in with some useful advice.

Not planning on getting rid of the emergency spillway. We have a small concrete spillway, and a large earthen emergency spillway. The concrete one is about 25 years old and has a concrete flume going down the dam. At the end of the flume where it dumps into the creek it is cracking, and has some erosion.

We are thinking of replacing the concrete spillway with siphons.