Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Muck dredge questions-trash/venturi pump?

Hi all-I've been around this forum in one form or another for the last five years or so, mostly lurking, somewhat participating, but always gleaning helpful information. During that time I've slowly worked on my pond as I've had the time and the $$$ and at this point have it looking like this:









Its a small pond-roughly 60' x 100' (x 7' deep at most) or so and its essentially a water table pond so its VERY tough to drain and keep drained. For that reason, when we renovated the pond we pretty much just nibbled around the edges, literally, with anywhere from 8,000lb-20,000lb rental excavators. I tried bringing in a long reach a few times but couldn't even find someone to do the work let alone rent one and do it myself. At this point, I have beautiful grass established, everything graded nicely, etc...so the thought of tracking a 60,000lb machine in is not exactly enticing. I've gone through multiple iterations of this and at this point I believe that some type of dredging is my best bet for a number of reasons. I've probably read through every muck dredging thread on this forum and it seems as though folks have been successful at this, even with ponds larger and deeper than mine. As seen in the photos I have a nice stable 8' x 8' floating dock that I can use as a work platform, and I also have a 3" semi-trash pump and the associated suction and discharge lines. Right now I've got the pump staged on the work platform and plan on testing it both ways: sucking muck directly into the pump and discharging to a dewatering area, and also using the pump to suck clear water and push it through a venturi to move muck to a dewatering area. That said, I'm wondering if this simple assortment of off-the-shelf PVC fittings will work:



The trash pump would pump clear water into the smaller (2") PVC which 90s into the sweep of the sanitary wye. I will connect two sections of 3" pipe to the other ends of the wye, one which will operate in the muck and the other which will be connected to discharge hose. I plan on messing around with it this week as I have time just as a proof of concept, and, assuming that one or the other works, I plan on creating a dewatering area on a slope on the western bank (in the top photo, left upper corner of the pond) luckily I have a hay farmer for a neighbor. First I'll lay down some lengths of 4" perforated pipe that run into the pond, then I will create a perimeter with haybales staked in and surrounded by silt fence, then cover everything in a layer of geotextile fabric. Finally, I'll fabricate a 12' x 20' or so dewatering bag from filter fabric to lay in the enclosure. The idea is that no matter which pumping method I use, the discharge will run into the dewatering area and the water will have to pass through two layers of geotextile fabric and haybales before it reaches the perforated pipe and runs back into the pond.

I'm really hoping that I've finally found the solution because after nearly three years of work, my kids LOVE being down at the pond after barely even knowing it was there when we first moved here. Now we really want to swim in it! I figure there is maybe 300 yards of material in the pond total. We were really able to get at three of the sides with the excavator probably 10' out, so the area is likely 40' x 90' and I figure its an average of 2' deep. I can go out to any part of the pond on the raft with a length of 1" steel pipe and once I'm through the 18-24" of muck it gets HARD-as in even with putting all of my weight on it/pounding it down I can't get it to sink any further. I'm not sure what it is-definitely rock in some areas, maybe hard packed clay in others, but in any event, it's not a bottomless pit of muck. In any event, 40' x 90' x 2' = 7200CF/27=266 yards. I've also read here that muck reduces about 8:1 once it dries out so I might only be looking at 40 yards of material or so which I could easily spread in that area with my front end loader and a drag. I'd love any feedback-especially from those who have undertaken similar operations!

Waiting to hear your results.
Thanks for trying.
Thanks for sharing.

Yes followers are interested on your progress and results of the muck sucking project. Please provide a picture of the business end of the venturi system when it is connected with hoses to the pump.

I used an above ground pool with an outlet at the bottom and pumped in at the top. I would dredge with a3" semi trash pump I would fill the pool then let it settle then siphon the clear water back to the pond then I would open the lower drain and dump the muck to an area where it would dry out. Then repeat. My pond is one acre and thirty feet deep it had about seven feet of muck. It was a lot of work but with your situation it would be very feasible

One other point to clarify to siphon out the clear water I would insert a two inch 90%bend into the fitting on the inside of the pool place a mat on the muck swing the pipe down to the mat and start siphon. Ps I reduced all pipes down to two inch

Using the venturi method you will transfer a lot of water

I tried one of these (premade) that goes with a pressure washer. I have a 12hp pressure washer but it wasn't able to do much, I think because the muck is full of leaves which jam up the discharge hose (which is a paltry 1.5").

Maybe a DIY one with a bigger hose would work better but I'm not sure of whether a pressure washer is theoretically better or worse. I just happen to have one and not a trash pump.