Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? 12 acre pond renovation project

we have a 12 acre pond on our farm, we purchased last year. I am considering lowering the pond about 5-6 foot in order to fix/repair some issues.

The Pond has a fairly poor stucture setup, i took a underwater camera and its kinda baren on the pond floor, very little structure.also the overflow drain is make of galvanized steel/concrete and is leaking around it. It was not installed properly.

currently there is an old drain that can be used to lower the lake. Pond is shallow in the back side, 1/3 of it is 1-3 foot of water. the dam is near 20-21 foot.

there is always water running out of the overflow pipe (hence its also spring fed). In the summer time it never lowers more than 1/2 foot.

My main task is to fix/repair the drian, and make something custom so i can add a hydro generator later on down the road. Incorporate a concrete spillway to handle the large amount of drainoff from the dry creek. second task is to place lots of structure using Pallets and PVC.

any thing i should be considering or concerned about taking on this ?

Also a quick note, i am guessing late summer or fall would be the best time to handle this, i would like to try and not mess up the spawn.

dhg that's a beautiful pond you have and you seem to know what needs to be done to correct the problems.
I'll let more experienced people give you info on pond renovations but I wanted to mention about microhydo units.

I'm also thinking about putting in a microhydo generator and here's a wesite I found that has good units from 110v to 220v and also 12volt generators.
http://www.rockyhydro.com/
http://www.rockyhydro.com/High_Head_Micro-Hydro.php

dhg wow what a beautiful pond you have.
I saved the image to my computer & you know
what I named it in my pond folder? "Perfect Pond".

That picture will motivate me. Perfect size,
surrounded by woods/tree lined shore,
gosh I just love it. You are blessed!

Hello DHG, welcome fellow Missourian! What part of the state are you in?

Chances are if the pond is spring, the soil used to make the dam will always seep a little bit. If the water never gets below 6" inches, I do not know if I would worry too much about fixing it. Chances are you may more problems than you already have.

Thanks all
We have been blessed and i am very gratefull.

I am SW of STL 2 Hours, off Hwy 44.
The lake has another issue im gonna try to workout this year, all the bass are 10-12" with parasites. (gonna put a good amount of shellcrackers in). The past 10 years or so, it hasent been fished much. It needs alot of fish taken out.