Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Construction pictures of new dam.

I am new to this site and have found informatation to be very informative and valuable!
We have just recently completed a Dam on our ranch in extreme western Nebraska (right adjacent to the Wyoming line). Water to the pond is provided by a stream that remains perennial most of the year. Water surface area approximates 3.5 acres with a max depth of 14 ft.
Engineering services were provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
This is very important, as official plans can be provided to the State DNR for permitting etc.

I have placed some digital photos of the dam as it progressed from site preparation to completion on www.photobucket.com. Just type "eitel" to access our site. I have to appologize for not having the photos in correct chronological order. I cannot figure out how to move pictures around in this site??

Edward P. Eitel ,
Nice pic's!
Lot's of info on this site. Keep reading you can make your pond thes best it can be!
Do it right the first time!

The costs of a new structure are quite variable.
Costs vary greatly with drainage area, storm frequency and intensity. Attempting to safely route a large storm, say 50 year event, on a large drainage can be costly. However, if smaller drainages with dependable water flow are available, the structure will be much simpler, safer and less costly. Also a 50 year storm event in Illinois is quite different from the same storm in Nebraska or Wyoming.

The paticulars on this structure:
1) Contributing drainage area - 1300 acres
2) Intermittent stream flow - 10 mo./ yr. @ about 400 gpm.
3) Compacted earth fill including core & stripping - 8483 cubic yds. Cost $8483.00
We did some trading here, therefor only $1.00/yd.
4) 13 ft., 30inch dia. riser (cmp pipe)
110 ft., 18 inch dia pipe barrel (cmp pipe)
54 ft., 10 inch dia drawdown pipe w/alfalfa valve & "varmit" protection. (cmp pipe)
Total costs for steel pipe delivered 100 miles from Casper WY. $4500.00
5) 180 ft. 4 inch schedule 40 pvc pipe. (toe drain)
Cost $500.00
6) Backhoe work on core trench, stump removal, etc. Cost $1000.00
7) Labor: gather close friends, family and provide lots of cold drinks and rib-eyes over about 8 days. Labor was rotated as their time permitted.

Total Costs approximate: $15000

Hope this helps.
Ed

Ed:

Great to have you on board. Nice documentation of the project, looking forward to seeing the final result. Your experience will be a valuable addition to this website.

Ed, very nice and great documentation. What are your stocking plans for this pond?

Bob

Bob,

Stocking plans for this pond have changed several times over the past year. I was leaning towards the LMB/BG comdo but, after following this forum for several months I have another thought.....

We have a LMB/BG pond that we installed in 1993 that is working real well! Just for diversity sake we are considering, (don't laugh) Yellow perch and Hybrid Stripers! I have researched this combo with the help of "Pond Boss" the past year. Perch are great table fare, readily take pelleted feed and are also great sport through the ice! Hybrids don't reproduce, are great sport and also respond to pelleted feed.

I remember the days of old and watching trout rise to an automatic feeder twice a day. Trout are still a far off stocking option but; they are very sensitive to tempature, lake drawdown in the summer, and catch and release. Not to mention (in my humble opinion) not that great on the table. Also, the new pond is located DOWNSTREAM of the bass/BG pond. We all know what that means if two BG get over the riser and into the trout pond.

I am looking at stocking the Yellow perch this fall and the Hybrids next summer. Any thoughts? Any possible wrecks I should be aware of? All criticism is welcome!
Thanks,
Ed

Ed,

Great photos of the dam project, thanks for posting.
Since my land is relatively flat, my ponds did not require a dam or any type of riser/drawdown piping. Therefore my only knowledge, concerning these structures, comes from what I've read. Could you explain why you would bury the drawdown pipe as opposed to having it lay above grade, or at least have the inlet above grade? Is the build up of sediments a concern or is the drawdown pipe flushed periodically?

Russ

Russ,

Very good question, and also great attention to detail of the photo. Actually you are correct, the drawdown pipe inlet should be at grade or slightly above grade. Actual survey and design of the structure had the pipe at its current location in order to facilitate maximum drawdown (seemingly underground!). Unfortunately I snapped a photo just prior to the excavation of a small silt basin in front of the drawdown. Soooo the corrected picture would show the pipe in its correct orientation with silt basin installed.

In many parts of the Country, sedimentation is a real concern. If the contributing drainage has cropland that is sensitive to erosion and runoff, you are likely to have significant sedimentation. In our situation the drainage area is 100% Native Range. Soil erosion from rain events is almost non existent..

Also we do flush drawdown pipes occasionaly, leaves and other debris can be periodically flushed. Also a great pond renovating tool, just pull the plug!

Hope this helps.
Ed

Ed,

Thank you for setting me straight on the drawdown pipe. I've got another question if you have the time.

Looking at the pictures, I gather that the riser pipe is connected directly to the pipe barrel without any valves. On the other hand, is the drawdown pipe connected to the pipe barrel using the "alfalfa" valve?
If this is the case, then it looks like everytime you want to access the valve, you do it through the riser pipe? Why not put the valve at the end(outlet) of the pipe barrel for easier access?

Russ

Russ,

A Nebraska Base Drawing can be viewed at.

http://efotg.nrcs.usda.gov/treemenuFS.aspx?Fips=31045&MenuName=menuNE.zip

After fixing this horrible address to your browser; Select Section IV; D. Jobsheets etc.; NE Standard Drawings; Then "Concrete Base Metal Pipe Riser and Alfalfa Valve drawdown facility'.

I hope this works for you as the drawing is pretty much self explanitory.

If you have difficulty navigating to this site; to answer your question.

The pipe riser is connected to the pipe barrel and is at least 1.25 times larger than the barrel. The pipe barrel will not flow full during a large storm event if this practice is not engineered into the riser and barrel. The 10" drawdown pipe, with alfalfa valve attached, elbows up at a 90 to enter the riser from the bottom. Concrete is poured to secure all the assembled pipe etc.

With a key, at least the length of the riser, you can open and close the valve.

Hope this helps,
Ed

Ed -- gorgeous country out there!!

No one answered your question about wipers and yellow perch. I don't have any experience with such a combination, and haven't heard of any results from anyone else.

I assume you don't mind restocking with advanced sizes of wipers every few years??

Did you consider just a largemouth bass - yellow perch combination?? That's worked very well for us in quite a few ponds, especially those that have some aquatic plant growth (20 or 30% coverage in midsummer). An advantage to some people is that both species will spawn and maintain themselves. I don't know if that matters to you or not.

Watch out or all those Sandhill lake ice fishermen will be down after your perch! :-)

Dave

Ed -- I would have never found your wiper perch topic if it would not have been for Dave Willis' post. I do not monitor the Pond Construction topic very closely.

We have used the wiper-perch combination with pellet feeding in several smaller ponds (0.3-0.7 ac) in NW Ohio. Currently,,, these ponds are only around three years old. So far,,,, things are doing fine. Good growth from both species. No evidence of overabundant perch. In fact we have several small ponds with only perch stocked and,,, with good management, no perch stunting has occurred when they are fed pellets. Not all perch will pellet train and those are thinned out when caught.

The main draw back(???) if any, to this combination is lack of wiper reproduction which might lead to an overabundance of yellow perch.; esp in weedy habitats. If you closely monitor the sizes of perch you should not have problems. As overabundant or stunting of perch begins to appear implement thinning; fishing, trapping, seining, and/or adding more wipers. A combination of some of these methods could quickly thin hundreds to a few thousand crowded perch. Overabundant perch numbers, could be manually thinned or reduced by adding more wipers. Our exerience is that large perch (10"- 13"+) will do some or a fair amount of thinning of smaller perch in addition to what the wipers eat. Use selective harvest or slot limits.

I would not be afraid to try this combination because if you decide it is not for your "tastes" you can always at a later time introduce an additional predator species to "thin" excessive numbers of smaller perch. Only a few bass can have a very big impact of dramatically reducing numbers of small (3"-4") or medium 5"-7") perch. Problem with bass is that good annual reproduction can quickly lead to a decimated perch population due to over predation of slender bodied perch.

You should be able to handle the job of adequately reducing the numbers of large 9"-14" perch. If you ever need help with this call me; I enjoy this job!!.

Ed,

Thanks for the link. After rethinking my post, I realize that putting the valve at the outlet of the pipe barrel makes no sense. Everytime pond runoff enters the riser, you would have to open the valve to let it drain but if the valve is also controlling the drawdown pipe, your pond would begin to drain! Not a good thing.

Russ

A BIG thank you to all who responded to my post. I now have a renewed interest in the wiper/perch combination. I will persue that combo with new found vigor and enthusiasm!

Thanks again!
Ed

Ed,
Show us some photos with the water in it. It looks like it will be beautiful.