Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Underground Electric Question

have a quick question for everyone. when i bought the place where i built my pond the guy who had it prior had plans for a pond and owned a directional boring company. so when he put the underground service wire in he went down 25 feet where the pond would be and then back up to three feet at the pole and to the house. where the wire was ran we only went down about 10 feet. now that the pond is filling and summer will be here at some point im starting to worry about the kids swimming and such...anyone see any problems with the wire being 15 feet below bottom of the pond? or am i worrying for nothing? thanks.

Don't worry, if the wire were to short out, it is very well grounded due to being in damp soil. When you have to worry is when a person or object becomes the path to ground, this is not your case.

I'm not an electrician and would wait until someone that knows what he's talking about responds, but my gut feeling is that it's a non-issue. The ground will act as a ground, so the kids will be safe.

well i thought about telling them if they go out to swim and all the fish are floating ...DONT GO IN!!...:)....thanks esshup we'll wait and see what everyone else thinks but that was my thought the whole time but guess i'm just looking for some confirmation...figured this would be the place for that

thanks gmoore....didnt catch your post til after i had posted...well from what ive gotten so far, the way i understand it is that if the wire shielding were to crack or whatever, the electricity wouldnt go anywhere but directly to the ground where the crack had occurred ....meaning noone would be in the path of it..

Put a ground fault circuit breaker in place. Then you have no reason to worry.

One thing to consider, is that in areas where there is a lot of water and sparse population, they will run main electrical lines directly in the bottom of the lake. I am not educated enough in this specific practice to know the variables and planning that goes into these installs, however, I have read of failures where swimmers have been electrocuted. And, while GFCI's are preventive, I would not take my chances sitting in a bathtub while someone throws in a running hairdryer. While I think your situation should be fine, I think you should do some more in depth research before letting your kids or yourself do any swimming.

yeah not sure i could use gfi...this is the main line coming to the transformer that sits not too far from the house....there is a fuse on the power line pole for my house because it has blown twice since we've owned this place...anyone have any ideas who i could talk to about the dangers that could give me a definite answer? the best theory i have so far is based on electricity's nature to take the least path of resistance to ground...since its already touching ground it should instantly short and blow the fuse on the pole....but will the water in the pond energize during that split second is my concern...thanks

quick update...contacted my power company and the previous owner...the wire was ran by the power co. in conduit the owner put in...but according to their records the previous owner told the engineer that the pond was not going to be put in after all..soooo, we are waiting to hear from the engineer and the supervisor of engineers to see what is going to happen..i feel a lot better knowing that it is in one continuous piece of conduit though...but they still might make me pull the wire and rerun it....we'll see...oh and the supervisor of my area that i talked to wasnt so sure on our theory of it going straight to ground without energizing the water...but he said we wasnt going to pretend to know everything about electricity either

The conduit won't do much.. It's mainly for protection and makes it alot easier to run wire.. Plastic conduit is alot better to run around water because you can seal it, but will leak in time.. I talked to an electrician at work and explained this to him.. He said he's heard stories of people being electrocuted by shorted out wire that is ran underground to boat docks.. He says electricity running trough water will not blow a breaker, I asked him why not, he said he didn't know for sure.. He also said wire ran through conduit filled with water won't short or electrify the area around it unless their a break in the insulation where water can get in, he said if that happened under a lake it would electrify that certain area with very high amperage enough to kill a person and would fizzle out the farther away from the short. But he said most likely it would not blow a breaker.. He said all of this is in theory and what he thinks would happen.. So don't take this info to the bank but definately do your research. He said electric takes the path of least resistance and water would be easier than traveling down a ground wire. A breaker blows from a current detected on the ground if the short travels to water and not down a ground wire it wouldn't blow IN THEORY. just some thoughts from an electrician of 30 yrs.

well i wonder if that means since its so far under the pond that the electric current would be weaker if it did energize the water...i realize conduit wont help much but it does give me a second line of defense...power co. called back and said they dont recommend it being there...ofcoarse they are going to say that to cover their ass...but he said as far as safety goes it depends on who you talk to..said they run underground all over that go under ditches that hold water,streams and such..and the people he talked to said shouldnt be a real issue..going to come out to give me an estimate to reroute it but said i wasnt looking at 5000 dollars most likely...ouch!...told him id probably leave it and he said that would be fine with him unless he gets word from someone up higher that it has to be moved....anyone who has any more input would be greatly appreciated...thanks

What if the line was broke while digging? If it's bfore the meter they should have to replace it

Well he said if something happened to it later that they probably wouldn't pull the cable back through the same conduit. So I guess that means that I would be paying for a new run. I guess my thing is if I pay 5000 to run a new line how far is it going to be from the pond? Not that far probably, it just wouldn't be under it. So if we ran it say 50 ft around the pond who's to say it couldn't still shock someone if they were swimming and the cable grounded? Noone can really say anything for sure from what I can tell and I know even if we reroute the wire the electric co. still wont say its safe because of liability. I talked to the previous owner and he swears its 23ft at the deepest part and we are only 10 ft at the most. So I figure that gives me 13ft of protection unless I hear some factual information that tells me otherwise. Thanks.

I quess overheads not an option..

yeah we could i guess but it would be over the pond...think id rather have it under than over

When grounding a power source for a residence or industrial facility, the best option is to bond the ground wire to a steel water pipe. The National Electrical Code would not specify this if the ground fault were going to go to the faucets, they are going to the ground by way of the water pipe, the least resistance. A ground fault in a wire 15 feet below ground in wet earth is not going to choose to go up to the water, through a person, just so it can get back to earth.

Gmoore I think that is the best explanation Iv'e had so far. I think I'm making an issue over nothing. Sometimes I just need someone to beat it in to my head a few times. Thanks.

I agree.. Worry about it when fish float.. There's no way you should have to worry about any electric going to your pond.. Remember- PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE

thank you gentlemen!