Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Bringing Old Pond Back to Life

I have a 45 year old pond that I want to renovate and I am looking for advise.

The pond is fed by a runoff stream that over the years has passed around the pond. The pond is located in a high water table and is still holding water (but very low) even in the drought we are currently in and no stream inlet.

I am going to start with cleaning all the trees located around the pond and dead limbs in the pond.

I want to re-direct the runoff stream back in the pond, but my concern is making sure the new spillway will hold up to the heavey rain runoff. I have seen the runoff strean 5 feet or so wide and two foot deep on a good rain.

Any ideas on spillway rebuilding? I don't really have alot of clay to dig up and use. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Sack,
First of all, a big welcome to Pond Boss.

If the stream doesn't naturally run into the the pond, even during relatively high water times, you might want to look at piping water from the stream into the pond.

Some good friends did just that on their farm to get above manure runoff that was getting into their 3/4 acre pond that is probably older than yours. They ran about 600 feet of 6-inch PVC that provided a head of several feet. Where it enters the pond they drop it from 6-inch to 4-inch with a ball-cock valve to regulate the water. They then run it through a vertical pipe that acts like a natural aerator for the incoming stream water. If they are getting too much water into the pond, they shut the ball cock valve.

Here is the pond as shown from the dam end. There is a driveway between the pond edge to the right, and a paddock. The stream is about 150 feet to the right of the driveway, and several feet below the level of the pond, as seen in the next photo.





The water intake for the pipe is through a filter in this area of the stream. The pond begins to the right of the red barn in the picture. There is a natural drop of 4-5 feet from this area of the stream to the pond.



The water comes into a small settling pond that we made. It now has a bunch of water plants growing in it to soak up nutrients before the water goes into the main pond.



Here is a close up view of the natural aeration caused by the water head from the stream.



Good luck,
Ken

Catmandoo is right on. Check the elevations of your pond, compared to the creek. Measure the elevation of the creek at flood stage and see what it will take to divert water into your pond. You don't necessarily need the entire flow of the creek coming into the pond, but some of it might be the best choice. Shoot the elevations, first. That will dictate the size of the spillway.

Size of pond is?

The pond is a little over a half of an acre.

looks like a awesome piece of land very nice

Where are you located in Oklahoma?

I'm south of Tulsa.

Sackperson the advice on piping the water to your pond is the best solution.
My pond wouldn't exist if I didn't pipe in the water from a stream. I'm lucky enough to have about 8 ft. of head from the pipe inlet to the pond surface and both 2" pipes run 300ft. to the pond supplying 110 GPM total.

I'm using 2" gray plastic conduit with bell ends so each pipe fits into the other, the cost is reasonable at that size and easy to work with, and as Ken said you can put gate valves on the pipe to control the water input.

We have used water matrix blocks in conjunction with pump vaults to re-direct stream water into ponds with great success. but you will need to run power to the pump. We simply bury the matrix and vault below the bed of the stream and cover with rocks from stream. We normally put a timer on the power so it isn't running all the time.