I'm in SW VA in the Blacksburg area. The water source is a spring. It runs about 10-15gpm (I'm guessing here based on a garden hose being about 6gpm) year round without rain. I can tell you the 3 inch over flow pipe works about at capacity when it isn't raining. When it rains hard I get at least double the flow. I am worried about freezing as well. I received advice not to worry about it but am hesitant.
Blacksburg definitely gets freezing conditions throughout the winter. I would assume the experts will tell you 3” pipe is undersized for the watershed. Most ponds that I have seen in VA have the overflow pipe buried in the dam with a T and the vertical pipe length setting the level of the pond with a trash rack on top to avoid clogging. This is what I decided to use on my pond as well as having a drain on the horizontal inside of the pond. I’m not saying that this is the only way by any means. DC70’s design is fantastic but I couldn’t find anyone around here who knew how to build it.
One tip that I can recommend is to lightly sand and paint the exposed portion of white pipe so it doesn’t degrade from ultraviolet light exposure.
On a separate note what kind of dog training do you plan on doing with all those ponds?
Heppy
