Pond Boss
Posted By: unclewilco One acre pond on hillside - 10/17/18 03:12 AM
I have an idea to build a one-acre pond at the bottom of a hill in Augusta, Missouri. See topo pic. Each contour is 20 ft. The pond water surface would be at an elevation of 770 ft. The top of the hill is 860 ft. The grade is 21% above the pond.
There is a run-off ravine heading into the pond (green line). A dam would have to be built. The dam would be somewhat V-shaped based on the topo lines and at its greatest height would be 40 ft tall, but only in the middle. Just beyond the pond/dam the valley begins. My property line would be about 70 ft from the dam and hopefully wide enough to allow enough build-up of dam material to terminate at the property line. Is this feasible? Recommendations on a builder? Any guesses on cost? Thanks for this forum and being able to ask pond questions! [img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z0QCOlfgnxIjcF-NerVlMgJ7BBL3Dhwe/view?usp=sharing[/img]
Posted By: Quarter Acre Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/17/18 03:30 PM
Welcome to the forums Wilco!

It sounds like you have a slightly off-the-norm pond plan, but nothing the professionals can't handle.

My novice concern would be the amount of watershed your pond would have. I cannot tell from your topo, but a one acre pond might require 10 acres of water shed...depending. You might be able to get by with less IF the rain runs off the hillside faster that it soaks in. I should not be advising you on this topic, actually. My point is...start with the water shed concerns too! Too little watershed and you have a one acre hole with 1/4 acre of water...not good. Or the opposite, too much water shed and the dam gets overrun too often.

Augusta is a beautiful area I am sure you will like it.
Posted By: Bobbss Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/17/18 07:47 PM
Welcome to Pond Boss! I just had a pond built a little over a year ago, very much like your wanting to do, and not very far from where your want to do it. To add to what Noel said about the watershed, my watershed area is heavily wooded with very thick under growth, and it takes a big rain to get any run off. I've only had that 2 times since my pond was built. I do get good run off from the area they cleared to make the pond. We haven't had a lot of rain, so I'm still waiting for my pond to fill.
I'm not sure, but a 40' dam is pretty tall and will probably require a engineer and permits. I would think that will add a lot to the cost. If you have enough clay on hand or not will make a big difference in cost.
My pond is in High Ridge Mo., not very far from where yours will be, and should be .75 acre when full. Your welcome to stop by and take a look at it, and compare it to what you want to do.
Posted By: unclewilco Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/18/18 07:35 PM
Thanks for the helpful insight Quarter Acre and Bobbss. Bobbss, I may take you up on your offer! I just heard about permitting due to the Taum Sauk reservoir dam break. Not sure the cutoff in dam height but it may be in the upper 20 ft range. Also not sure how to calculate watershed, but by the look of the contour lines it may be about 6 acres. Sounds like I may need to do a smaller pond. Thanks again for the forum.
Posted By: Bobbss Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/19/18 01:46 AM
If you only have 6 acres of watershed, you would do better with a .5 acre pond. Your pond builder may be able to increase your watershed area.
Is your land open or wooded? If wooded, it will cost a little more to build.
From what I've learned from building mine, I think I would worry more about building it right and cleaning and leveling things up around it more than how big. I used all my budget trying to get it as big as I could. If you have a very large budget, then go for both.lol!
Posted By: jludwig Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/19/18 11:48 AM
Go to your local NRCS office and they will be able to help determine watershed size.
Posted By: DonoBBD Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/19/18 12:24 PM
Man what I would give to have elevation where I could have two or even three ponds run from one to the next. The bottom pond would have my main predator fish and the ponds above would have the feeder fish. Say walleye in the bottom pond, yellow perch in the middle pond and shiners in the top pond. All over flow will take the feeder to the next pond.

It would take some time but would that not be the coolest?
Posted By: Redonthehead Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/19/18 01:44 PM
As noted above I highly recommend you contact the local NRCS office and find out if they can design the pond for you. I believe this is the office:
https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator...29&cnty=183

Not all counties in MO can do it, but mine came out and surveyed the land, flagged it, designed it, and gave me drawings to hand to a contractor (although we did it ourselves). MO is pretty easy going on regulations on small ponds - no permits required - at least in my county. Dam height over 21 feet required the regional NRCS engineer to look it over. Dam heights over 35 feet in MO step off into the deep end of regulations and permitting.
Posted By: Bocomo Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/19/18 03:49 PM
A 40' earthen dam is a serious undertaking. It's possible, but it would require serious consultation with a real pond builder as well as an engineer. Even 20' might be tricky with a 21% grade.

Would you be happy with 0.5 ac or less and fishing for species with limited reproduction, i.e. hybrid stripers?
Posted By: unclewilco Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/19/18 08:42 PM
jludwig and Redonthehead: Good suggestions from the NRCS. Just paid the office a visit. St. Charles, MO county requires 2 permits. One for land disturbance. The other for construction. And yes y'all are right, I need to stay below 35 ft, but using the topo maps, if they're accurate, I still think I can build a nice one. The guy at NCRS is doing a watershed analysis and offered to come out. He gave me a website for soil analysis. https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/
It says most of the area is Holstein loam, followed by Gatewood-Gasconade-Crider loam. So need to find out about that soil. I found somewhere that Holstein is moderately permeable with high runoff, so idk. I'll be building a house out there and will have the guys dig a test hole to look closer at the soil.
Posted By: robjones Re: One acre pond on hillside - 11/02/18 02:04 AM
Well good luck with that and it will surely cost you an arm and a leg to pull it through. Keep us posted!
Posted By: TruffletopiaNC Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/12/21 01:00 PM
I understand this is years late, but is there any chance you were successful, or that anyone else can give insight.

The top of our land is at about 600 ft elevation and we are looking to build roughly a 1 acre pond that would span roughly 350 ft across our back property line. The elevation in this area is about 540 ft and on the higher end of where we would like the pond is about 570 ft elevation. Obviously we need a dam and spillway.

Just wondering who was able to achieve this and how the project went.
Posted By: esshup Re: One acre pond on hillside - 10/12/21 04:25 PM
Originally Posted by TruffletopiaNC
I understand this is years late, but is there any chance you were successful, or that anyone else can give insight.

The top of our land is at about 600 ft elevation and we are looking to build roughly a 1 acre pond that would span roughly 350 ft across our back property line. The elevation in this area is about 540 ft and on the higher end of where we would like the pond is about 570 ft elevation. Obviously we need a dam and spillway.

Just wondering who was able to achieve this and how the project went.

How much watershed (acres wise) will collect water and run it to your pond?
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