Thanks for the reply, RAH. I’ve got the stumps cut low enough that they won’t cause any interference with mowing. I was concerned about the stumps rotting that will be under the water (trees grew along the lowered water line since the stand pipe had rusted off). When it fills back up they’ll be under water. But doing nothing and seeing if they cause any problems does make sense. The clay along the shoreline was just my hair brain idea (no science behind it) so I’m glad I didn’t do that.

It’s about a 1/3 acre pond and there’s probably 10-15 acres of watershed (sort of). It doesn’t drain directly into the pond. It’s actually fed by a 4” pipe from that watershed. The inlet of that pipe also needs work because it either barely flows out or doesn’t flow at all. With that being said, it doesn’t seem to be able to maintain water up to the current overflow level. Maybe because it doesn’t have much flow (if any) into it or maybe it’s seepage? I haven’t found any actual leaks though. My concern with a siphon system is that it’d be constantly pulling water out and I don’t know if it will stay full if that’s the case.

The original stand pipe is probably 8” and the horizontal is 3 or 4”.

As you can tell, I have a lot of issues but I’m determined to fix it!