Originally Posted By: catmandoo

You mentioned a spring as one of the water sources. If it is in the pond, hopefully it is one that runs even during serious droughts. If not, it will act as a drain during the dry times.


The stream is the second concern. We normally don't recommend damming streams because of the volume of water they can produce during a big rain storm. In the photos I don't see an emergency spillway. With the thought that the pond could fill in as little as 10 days, I do hope your builder put in a very large standpipe that can handle at least double the average stream flow this time of year. And hopefully, they put in a very substantial spillway for our heavy rains.


I am glad to hear that our soil is perfect! Having read through a few dozen threads on this board written by guys losing their mind dealing with soil issues and dam issues I realize we are very fortunate!

I spoke with my Father about the creek and apparently I was slightly off when I said the pond is both spring and creek fed. While there is a spring in the bottom of the pond and a creek that feeds the pond apparently the creek itself is spring fed and flows no matter the weather (although obviously at times of heavy rain it flows harder than times of drought). The stream starts about 300 yards above the pond and has a waterfall with an 8-foot drop so the water should be well oxygenated when it reaches the pond. The spring-fed stream runs directly into a larger flowing creek known as thumb run which eventually empties into the rappahanock.

No emergency spillway was built because the pond is totally reliant upon this spring, the overflow pipe is 18" pvc and should be sufficient from what we are told.

Here is the aerial view of the pond before construction (pond outlined in blue), the stream runs through the woods under the pond and the creek above the pond is thumb run:


I don't have a good picture of the waterfall but I will get one on Saturday. Here are some of the spring-fed creek when we first began construction:



Here is the overflow and the drain pipes on the outside of the dam:




The only bad thing about our layout is that we would have to take GREAT caution if we ever empty the pond for maintenance to avoid having our fish populate Thumb Run.

Last edited by RockvilleMDAngler; 02/22/12 03:24 PM.