NADam, welcome to the forum. For something of that size and scope, along with the potential of affecting other landowners downstream in event of a failure, I would contact an engineering firm to design and provide design parameters for construction. You just can't pile dirt and make a dam, you need the proper dirt, proper moisture content and proper compaction, along with the correct design. During the design, 50, 100 and 500 year rain events have to be taken into consideration. Like was said earlier, build it once and build it right, or you just threw all that money away.

A customer in Texas has a reservoir that was constructed by our government between 1935 and 1943 It retains somewhere between 90 and 130 acres of water, depending on how wet the year was, but typically it's around 120 acres in size. The dam is roughly 1 kilometer long, roughly 30 meters wide at the top and at the highest point it is roughly 18 meters high. So, something that you are thinking of doing is possible with the correct engineering and the correct construction practices.

Here is some reading for you that might help you get started in the correct direction:.


https ://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/OpenNonWebContent.aspx?content=43317.wba


Here is some information regarding using a special block to line the spillway that is used for excess water egress:


https ://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/OpenNonWebContent.aspx?content=43235.wba

Earth Spillway Design

https ://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/OpenNonWebContent.aspx?content=18377.wba

The forum has been giving me issues this morning so to get these to show up I had to add a space between the https and the :

Copy/paste each one in your browser and remove the space then hit enter. That should take you to the site and open the information for you. Al or someone that has better computer skills than I do, if you can fix what the issue is, please do so. I give up. I've been fighting with this for the last 1/2 hour and I'm throwing in the towel.

Last edited by esshup; 12/03/23 08:14 AM.
www.hoosierpondpros.com


http://www.pondboss.com/subscribe.asp?c=4
3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).