When I started to build my pond in 2002 I talked to NCRS and asked them if any permits were needed. They told me none were needed.
I thought better safe than sorry so I called the county engineer and he said no permit was needed. I then called the state water office and the chief engineer said that if my drainage area above the dam was not greater than several hundred acres I was exempt from any state requirements. Since my drainage area was 75 acres I was OK.
One of my son's friends parents said that the Corps of Engineers required a permit. I thought what the H, it never hurts to ask. I called and left a message, after several days of no return call I thought they were'nt interested. A week or so later I just happened to be in the office over the noon hour and the phone rang and it was the Corps of Engineers deputy on the phone. He said that the Corps had jurisdiction of any area that flowed water enough to bend vegetation over and that a permit or a finding that an exception applied was required. I asked him what happened if I built the dam without the permit. He said if they found an unpermitted or a dam built without a permit they would make me remove it.
I then applied for a agricultural exeception and in about two weeks a letter arrived stating that I met the exception in and confirming that I could build the dam without a permit.
I was lucky to have unwittingly gotten the Corps exception approval despite trying to ask anyone who I could identify as requiring a permit as to what permits were required.
