Friends,

We're in the process of building a home and pond and I'm considering the best method to get water from a deep well to the pond.

Pond site (planned) 1-1.75 acres. Rainfall will not support more than a 2 acre pond per the county engineer.
Rainfall per year 64 inches

Pond depth 10-12 feet with a 3/1 slope, should have good clay at 12 feet
Land size 16 acres
Distance from well to pond 700-850'
Terrain - very mild slope toward pond, overall fairly flat land
Location - East Texas

We won't need to fill/top-off the pond all year, but just during times of drought and high heat so I'm hesitant to put a permanent pipe in the ground but am interested to hear some input.

Thanks,

Joe

I don't think you can safely say you won't need to top off the pond... In your area, you may well NEED to do so to keep from having a fish kill. I think a permanent tube/pipe underground is a good idea-you'll always have it if you need it.
If you have good clay at 12' you'll need to stock-pile that good clay and use on the sides as well as the bottom-build the entire tank out of it.
As for getting it out of the ground, the means would depend on finished pond size. if 3/4 ac or less, a solar pump would be sufficient but for a 1+ acre pond it's probably going to take a decent sized electric pump. At 1-1.75 acres your talking 6-10 acre feet of water=2 to 3 million gallons of water.

Contact an Oil Patch fast line company to buy some 2 1/2" thick walled tubing. Run it on the surface or just below the surface. I did trinch some of mine but it's a pain if I get a leak where it is buried. I have 6/10 of a mile of it run from the well to the pond. It also depends on how much water the well will make and what size pump you are using. I use an elec pump that pumps 65 gallons per min when the pump is new and over time the pump will wear and produce a little less.

Snipe and TGW1,

Thanks for the input. I'll have to give a buried pipe some more thought. I was hoping to get away with just running an above ground hose but I realize that might not be a practical solution.

I did ask the well contractor about 2-3 million gallons for an initial fill / top off. For a deep water well with a commercial pump they said it shouldn't be a problem but it will take some time to pull that amount of water. We're over a major aquifer so that's a plus in not exhausting the water supply.

I agree about the buried pipe. Use as big of an ID as you can, less friction loss over the length of run so the water will move faster. Above ground pipes/hoses are a PITA. Plus if it's not metal the sun will chew it up in no time and you will be buying more. If it's below ground just make sure you know where it is in case you want to dig in the future.

Being below ground you won't have to worry about driving over it, if it's plastic, you won't have to worry about critters chewing on it, or hitting it with the brush hog.