Thanks for the reply, essup. My reasoning is really two-fold....cutting down on material and construction costs while still being able to remove the deepest (poorest) water first. I should have only one pipe joint inside the dam, and plan to use two anti-seep collars. I have no objections to the riser pipe being on the intake side, except for construction costs to facilitate removing the deepest water. Are there simpler methods of accomplishing that ?

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