Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Draining water Help

I have a new pond and I have a 10 inch culvert draining it. The pond filled this fall and my drain was working fine. The pond recently froze and pushed my culvert up and now (you guessed It) the water is running underneath the culvert. The question is there a good fix besides bringing it up with a back hoe? I have been shoving clay underneath it a slowing it but this is just temporary till summer. My culvert sticks out about 1 1/2 feet from the bank this is wht it got shoved up. I take it this is the wrong wat to do it. Should I cut it off? If so how far back onto the bank. I thought it would be better to leave it out but that was a mistake. The red clay is so horrendous nothing will be able to be done till june. All help is appreciated. I am afraid I may lose it all with the spring rains.

I am not sure there is much you can do until spring. You can keep trying to pack in clay for now, but to do a good and 'guaranteed' job you may need to bring it up in the spring. You could however try pumping some water out and filling in around it better with clay/bentonite or cement. Either way you are best to cut off the pipe flush with the pond bank to remove the possibility of ice leveraging it and lifting it out again. It isn't so much of a problem in ponds that don't have an inflow, don't freeze very solid, or are close enough you could put a cattle trough de-icer or such at the opening. I believe there are others on the board that have had similar problems that may have other ideas.

Temporarily, I'd pack bentonite around it. I use "enviro-plug" from a local well company.

Ultimately, what you need to do is install a couple baffles that will stop the water from running along the pipe. I would put one in about 1 foot from the pond bank, and the other half way through the dyke. You can use plastic sheets, sheet-metal, or even mud flaps, but it either needs to be tight to the pipe, or caulked with a heavy duty product. I know that this sounds like a lot of work, but it is the best way to stop water from undercutting drain pipes. Maybe someone has a construction diagram that they can lead you to.

What about removing it in future and going with an "above ground" overflow. That is what I did a several years ago when I had similar problems due to my contractor not putting any collars on my pipe. I told him we would have problems but he wouldn't listen to me.

I have an channel now that is stone lined and above ground that water flows into when the water level reaches a certain height. It funnels into an above ground pvc pipe that has a downward angle and the water dumps into a ditch. The above ground pipe is covered with stone to keep it from moving and for asthetic reasons.

I believe it is foolproof now.

I feel pipes even with collars are just a problem waiting to happen even if it is years later.