Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Anyone put in a lift station to supply a pond?

The site we want our pond to be at is unfortunately on the high point of the property. We are looking at putting in field tile as a water source and then using a lift station to pump water into the pond. Have any of y'all used a similar setup, and if so what did your electric bills tend to run for the lift station? This would be a 1 acre pond with 10 acres of field tile draining into it.

Sorry in advance for this being an opinion rather than experience, but if the soils and construction are quality, I would imagine the cost of pumping would be some fraction of a typical well or sump pump. It can certainly be done, but it then becomes an issue of cost. I assume it would run intermittently as opposed to continuously. Most would depend on how high you're pumping it too. There are better resources than me on this subject, but I think it is a tough one to answer without knowing the height, distance, and frequency. With that said, frequency can't be determined until the pond is built because you don't know how well it holds water. All ponds "leak" so that is one factor that will have to be guessed.

I have had some preliminary discussions with the field tile company and they indicated $8,000 as the cost to install the lift station, and they were going to get back to me on the estimated ongoing electric costs to run the pump.

I use a gasoline pump with about 490 feet of 2" poly pipe to keep my leaker up to an acceptable level. Pumping is done from an intermittent creek in the same watershed as the pond, but about 16 feet lower. I have done the numbers, and that's the cheapest way for me to keep the pond to a reasonable level, although in drought I am severely limited by creek flow. It looks like you would face the same situation with water availability. I try to keep the pond up for the BG spawn, then let it go down some. My total investment is only a few hundred dollars.

There is a drainage canal about 150 feet from where this pond would be going in. Problem is the times you would need to pump from it would be the times it would not have much volume at all (i.e. droughts), and the times it would be full the pond would likely be overflowing as well. So I think for now (assume ongoing electric costs are manageable) we're going to proceed with the lift station to fill the pond from the field tile, and then maybe have a supplemental water supply from an existing well on the property that could keep the water level above some minimum level during drought conditions (where field tile woudl supply little to no water to the lift station).

From the first post do I understand correctly the feild tile is not already existing? If not I think you need to investigate how much water you can expect out of it in dry times. Perhaps the field tile company can show you some in the area.

My son and father-in-law both farm and install field tile with their Ditch Witch to eliminate wet spots in crop fields. Yes when its wet they can run pretty good. But generally barely a trickle in dry spells.

Yep we would be putting in new field tile. Like you said, little to no water to be expected in dry times.

I probably shouldn't give advice seeing how I have a new pond that doesn't seem to hold water yet.But could you maybe put in a small pond for the field tiles to drain into so you can save some to pump later?That may not be worth your cost or effort.

i have a 1.5 hp electric pump that is rated at 70 gallons a minute. you don't actually get that much volume due to lift and push, but it is more than i need to keep my pond topped off. i have it on a separate meter from my home. it cost about $5 a day to run the pump non stop. there are also 2 LED street lights on that same meter for my driveway.they burn for appr. 12 hours a night and that is included in the $5 a day.

If you have flow and some drop, look into a ram pump.

They use water to lift water.

Do not forget about evaporation! On a low humidity, hot day with a slight breeze, you can lose an inch of water, or 27,514 gallons a day. If your home well is typical, it puts out about 10 gallons a minute at max flow....that is an output of only 14,400 gallons a day....not enough to keep up with evaporation....This is also assuming your well water source never runs dry or is slow on recharging.

Perhaps your canal can be dredged out to allow a deep spot for storing extra water too...?