Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Replace livestock pipe?

I have no idea when my 1 acre pond was built, but it's old. I discovered a leak last fall and I have finally discovered the source. There is a 3" steel pipe going though the dam that was to water livestock and it is rusted though to the point I have water coming to the surface on the dam and running down the back side. What is going to be my best option to fix this? I restocked the pond 3 years ago and do not want to start over.

Dig up the pipe, remove, and pack clay in its place.

How far is it below the surface of the water?

All the way at the bottom.

I think I have figured out my first plan of attack. There is a structure made of cinder blocks that goes from the bottom of the pond to the surface. The pipe that is leaking come up in the middle of it. I am going to wrap the blocks with a tarp and pump out all the water I can from the middle and see if I can see the pipe. Then start dumping in bags of concrete. My hope is I can lower the flow and pressure enough that what movement there this still is will carry the concrete and maybe plug the holes in the pipe.

Maybe this will not work, but worth a few hundred to try before a tear out the dam.

Any thoughts?

I think you are on the right track to determine if you can lower the water level to expose the intake of the pipe. Are you able to open the pipe below the pond and let water flow out?

If so you could open the pipe outlet, pump concrete/mortar into the intake until it starts coming out below, then seal off the outlet when the pipe is full of concrete. May need to be a thin mixture to flow through a 3" pipe.

Welcome to the Forums JD. I am not a pond expert by any means, just a self proclaimed tinkerer. So, I presume your leak can not be too bad or your pond would be empty. My old pond, before renovation, had a "pipe' sticking out of the back to the dam for watering cattle. It had not been used in many, many years, it had collapsed, but still seeped water. I thought about digging into the back side of the dam, let's say about half way, and capping the pipe or welding it up then compacting clay back over it and letting it be. I eventually renovated the pond because it had gotten too shallow from silting in so I never had to deal with the pipe, it was removed during the breaking of the dam.

If my assumption about the low amount of leakage is correct, I suspect you could use concrete, as you mentioned, with a decent success factor so long as the pipe entrance is where the leaking water is entering the pipe. It the pipe is compromised beyond the entrance, concreting won't do the trick. A couple of bags above the pipe entrance (in the cinderblock tower) would be a cheap attempt. Heck, packing the tower with clay might even do it.

My 2 cents worth!

This might be one of the situations where pouring bentonite into that structure might work. I think, if it cannot be dug up, the best would be to try the concrete.

If the quick solution doesn't work, try digging into the dam from the backside as far as you can without compromising the dam, cap off the pipe inside the dam, then pack in clay over and beyond where the pipe was (up to the highest water level) with a heavy tamp. A long piece of 4x4 makes a good tamp in that situation.

If you still want a pond drain after that, you could install a siphon, with the pipe crossing the dam just below the surface.

If I open the pipe water flows out of it and where the water is coming to the surface on the side of the dam stops. As soon as I close the pipe back up the water starts flowing out of the side of the dam again.

It is not a huge leak, 5 gpm maybe? I just know that if I don't fix it at some point I will no longer have a pond.

The concrete deal sounds good. If you can get the pipe completely full of concrete, it might be a semi long term solution. Some concrete would come out where the leak in the dam is and help plug things.

I would use a fine aggregate, like coarse sand.

I put some dye inside the concrete blocks. About 30 seconds later I have dark blue water coming to the surface of my dam. After about an hour I see no signs of blue dye getting into the rest of the pond. I feel pretty optimistic this is going to work.