Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam New pond construction-Need advice

OK my 15 yr. old son is about to drive me nuts wanting a pond on our place. I think we have a good place to put one but don't have a clue where to start or if I can even afford it. Here is the situation.

Location-Central TX in a subdivision. We have a 5 acre lot with a small seasonal creek flowing through it. I THINK our watershed is about 75 acres-might be more-but we get a lot of water through our place when it rains. I think we could have about 1/4-1/2 acre of surface water but have no idea how much it will cost or where to even start. Can I just get any heavy equipment operator to do the job. What about surveying the area? Don't want to flood my neighbor or my house!!!!! I am completely lost as to where to start. Thanks in advance for any help.

That much water is hard to handle. Maybe you could split off part of the creek to fill your pond, and let the rest flow as usual. You will have to be conscious of trash fish. Even a seasonal creek can be a source of carp, bullheads, and sunfish of questionable parentage. 1 approach is a gravel filter bed to filter out unwanted fish.

If your land is fairly flat, there should be no problem with flooding your neighbors. If it's steep, you will have to build a dam with great care and planning to prevent it from washing out.

Does the subdivision have any zoning restrictions on what you can do with your land?

Because you have neighbors and it could easily happen, I'd avoid the dam if possible and dig out the dirt. Hire an excavator to dig it out and some dump trucks to haul it away. Lots of money to do this, but in the end, it should be allot cheaper. With a dug out pond, there is no dam to fail, ever, and the water that flows through your land will continue to do so. Your just holding some of it.

Before you do anything, know were your septic is, your utilities, and if any utilities cross your land. Call 1-800-dig-tess

I was in a subdivision last week were there was a fiber optic line running along the back fence. It was marked, but if it hadn't have been, I might easily have put a fence post right through it.

Eddie

I think I made it sound like it is more than it really is. 80 % of the time the creek is dry but when we get wet periods, such as right now, it flows pretty good. But you are correct that when we get heavy rains it does come a flood rather quickly and that could be a problem w/a dam.