Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Our creek is ruined for at least a year

Here is a picture of our creek today, several hours after a moderate 1.3 inch rain. It would normally have 10 inches to a foot of visibility after such an event, and run very clear after a day. A Black Hills Energy pipeline project about 3/8 of a mile up the creek created this mess. I have been in touch with Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology, but they are powerless to do anything, I have been told. I wish I could put this pic up somewhere it would go viral.

Would you want to pump this mess into your pond? Besides, it would abrade my pump and pipeline.

Sorry John, that's horrible

What is in the water in addition to soil particles?

Wonder if it's worth a water test to see what them folks are dumping into creek or just disturbed soil

It's just clay from two completely denuded hillsides covering probably six acres or more of watershed. No silt fences on the hillsides, no riprap by the creek. DPC&E said it will be seeded back, but it's probably not going to be hydroseeded, so it will take a year or two, with big gullies down that steep ROW. It makes me sick. Now I have lost the source of water to keep my leaky pond up, so probably goodbye pond.

If a flash flood happens soon, that ROW will look like a hydraulic mining site from the late 1800s. The hillside was thick hardwood timber and brush before.

John,

Could you make or use mini sand filter to filter the water before it goes into your tank. Maybe something like a pool sand filter. I don't know if it would work, I'm just bouncing ideas around.

I hate that man, I know you depend heavily on that creek. Have read about your leaks. I'm with farmallsc...maybe you could come up with something so you could still use it. Maybe even something where you could slow the water down before it goes into your pond...like a sediment pond...but out of like a couple of barrels full of pea gravel or something. I don't know how much your pump is rated at...but seems if you could slow it down maybe alot of the solids would fall out of it into the bottom of the barrels. Just thinking outside the box. Sorry man.

I am not headed that way, but I bet I could eventually collect damages in court if so inclined. I also suspect there's a kill of the Ozark Minnows in the creek.

My pump does about 3,800 GPH at the pond end of the pipe. It's a "clear water" pump. That clay is very fine, and does not settle out of the creek until the flow stops and it goes back to potholes. No way I could filter out that much flow. At that rate, it will take about 16-20 hours pumping to get my pond to "normal" level, a few inches below full pool. I was looking forward to the rain, and ended up with mud. That mud is going directly into a so called "protected watershed" that is the drinking source for over 300,000 people.

I might talk to DPC&E again, but the guy already told me his hands are tied. Economic development, I guess.

I wonder if there was a huge flash flood, if it would flush all the silt off that hillside?

That is bad news John. Sorry to see it. There's a lot of construction going on around our place in St Louis. The lengths builders have to go, to protect the local environment are amazing. Lots of fine mesh, low fencing. Plus bales of hay staked down, and rolls of something around all the edges. I doubt a whole lot of silt gets by.
I'm surprised these guys that messed up that Hill like that weren't under some sort of restrictions.

The creek had slowed down nearly to potholes and cleared quite a bit, then it rained only 0.3 inches last night resulting in this:

John, is there anyway you could dig a sediment pond? A small 30x30' hole in the ground where you could pump the creek water to where the clay solids would settle. Then you could pump it over to the pond. And this might not help but after clearing some of my land for an additional pond, I scraped off some of the top soil and then due to rain I have not been able to finish the project and the weeds and wildflowers have taken over that area since last spring. I am not there and I am no expert, but I am thinking something will be growing soon to reduce that washing of the clays.

Why is your pond leaking so bad? Maybe this could be an opportunity to let your pond lower down and you could maybe fix your leak? Or is there no fixing this leak? Just asking.. sorry I don't know the history of your pond...

RC