Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond quetion regarding runoff

We built a new pond this summer and it is filling up nicely. Unfortunately the way our farm lays a ton of the run off gets trapped when it hits the horseshoe part of the side wall. It is hard to describe but part of the side of the pond has been elevated to keep the water in once full. It happens to be the side that we get the most run off. is there a way to trench a pipe that would allow water to flow into the pond but not allow water to exit the pipe out of the pond ? The difference in height is approximately 3 ft so on a couple of occasions we had 3 feet of standing runoff that was on the other side of the side wall for the pond. If I trenched a pipe into the pond it would catch the runoff and help fill the pond. When the pond got full I could cap it possibly. The pond will be 8ft deep when full and is around 6ft right now.
I thought about cutting a lot of the dirt off and lowering it but if I did that it would never reach to overflow pipe and would run out into the field before it reach its maximum depth


thanks for any input

Can you trench or terrace the water where you need it?

Brian, the problem is the majority of the field drains down to two spots one well below the pond and the second is kind of in the middle of the side of the pond. we had to move it from the original location due to all the rock we hit. I have an excavator guy coming this afternoon and I might just try and fill in the field with several triaxle loads of dirt to push the water more downhill of the pond or just try and raise the level of the ground up to the level of the side of the pond, the problem is I think it would cost a fortune in dirt. If there were a way to capture the runoff that would be ideal but the only way I could do it now is to trench it right throw the side of the horseshoe wall.

Without pumping you can only capture runoff that is above the elevation of your pond full pool level. Unless you can figure out how to run water up hill.

If you can make a terrace at any elevation above that level to capture the water and bring it into the pond before it gets to the area it is flooding, that would be one approach.

I did such a terrace to capture about ten additional acres of runoff for my main pond.

If your wrap around dam is above the fool pool level where the water needs to come in, you can cut the dam down to that level but you need to make sure the terrace has all the characteristics of the dam where it enters as water will back up agajnst it during heavy rains when the pond is temporarily above full pool. So the lower portion of any terrace cutting into the dam needs to have the same strucural integrity of the dam.

Easier to show than explain in words.

In Missouri we have big steel pipes with heavy flappers on them to drain water back into the river once it goes down. some kind of check valve should work.

thanks for the advice, I was told a check valve on a pipe would probably work if I went that route. I will also investigate the terrace For right now I am just filling in the low spots and trying to divert it to our lower pond which is much bigger and downhill. From there I can just pump it into the new upper one with my trash pump . I made a pretty good dent with 2 loads of dirt and spent several hours spreading and grading it. Still a few hours to go on the tractor but I think it is looking pretty good and should push the water towards the lower one which would be fine. We are supposed to get a lot of rain Sunday night and Monday so maybe I'll get some run off and see if all my work pays off. If not I will see where it pools and re-evaluate. I really appreciate all the advice.