Here's the pipe used- someone can comment on whether it is flimsy.
I talked with a guy this weekend who said he didn't like pipes through dams in that area as the soil tends to have too much sand in soils even considered high clay and it doesn't pack well. Makes one think more about bagging the current design and doing a siphon over the top. Might be simpler in the end to buy elbows and more pipe than dealing with multiple dump trucks of clay coming from a ways out.
In preparation for more rain to come this week, I drew down the pond close to a foot on Sat. By morning it was back up a few inches as snowmelt was running in. So I opened the drain line again Sun and dropped it more.. better to have extra space before it tries to flow through that hole in the dam. FYI, just dropping your water level a few inches creates huge cracks in 4" ice. Tis no longer floating, so down it goes.
And Esshup, I spoke with the local NRCS office about their input on overflow design. I got a lot of input about how overwhelmed the office is and they no longer come to any sites. They took my estimate off USGS topos that the 1 ac pond is draining 10 ac and the parcel location and sent the info to the Salem Tech Team. The response was that a 6" overflow pipe should be plenty. As I have (had
) a 12" that might make one feel better, but given that they used so little input, makes one wonder.
