Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Pipe overflow vs. spill way

I'm looking to finish my one acre pond this fall and have a few questions. One, where did you find the best price on sodium Bentonite and two which over flow method is best (pipe or liner and stone spill way)?

You really should have 2 different water exits from your pond. A primiary one that handles most of the storms that you'll see and a secondary or emergency spillway that handles the 50-100 year floods.

Hi Mark - Welcome to the Pond Boss forum - good to see another Husker here. I'm in Lincoln also, would love to learn more about your project. Feel free to PM me sometime, will help in any manner I can - just finished the 5th pond at my farm near Denton this Summer.

On the spillway question, always go with an open channel spillway. That will flow WAY more than you'll ever get a normal pipe to flow. If you think about it, even if you submerge the inlet of a 24" diameter culvert, it will likely be flowing around half full at the culvert outlet. That is essentially the same flow as a 24" wide earthen spillway, which is very very small. Build a wide open channel spillway and be better off.

I agree with Esshup. The best system is one designed for your pond. A mixed system with a bottom drain siphon pipe and an open emergency spillway is best IMO.

I agree with the more water statement, BUT, if it's an earthen spillway that has water going thru it constantly, there's a good possibility that it will slowly erode over time, and when a big storm comes, it could cause considerable washout, even to the point where the dam could fail.

Like ewest said, a siphon system for a primiary. I've not seen a siphon system when activated run with anything other than a completely full pipe.