Leaky overflow pipe - 06/08/11 03:39 AM
My overflow pipe is leaking, I think?
The pond was built about 50 years ago. A corrugated steel pipe rises vertically out of the ground, elbows below the pond, and exits out the back bank leaking into a creek. About 25 years ago, the owner of the pond told me he put a larger, yet thinner corrugated pipe around the old verticsal pipe b/c the old pipe was deteriorating at the top. The new bigger pipe was forced a few feet in the bed of the pond and extended about two feet higher than the existing pipe. He did this to raise the level of the water. There is a spillway on the northeast end of the bank and it simply consists of grass and drains into a mature wooded area eventually ending up in the creek.
When I first moved here, the 1 1/2 acre pond was high. The overflow pipe was apparently clogged and I, at the time, could not see the outter pipe extending vertically out of the water at all. The spillway was damp at the time but did its job.
Some say there was a spring on the southwest side of the pond but I see no evidence of this presently. I feel the pond receives its water supply from run-off only.
The past two months I've noticed plenty of rainfall, yet the pond level stayed low. I went to the back of the bank and saw a trickle of water coming out of the horizontal pipe yet the top of the vertical pipe is about 18 inches above the water.
I am thinking about pouring cement in the smaller original pipe and hope it hardens at the elbow.
Or should I cap the back side of the pipe where it spills out.
I feel I can sure up my spillway and survive any big storms, I just can't see it washing away. My house is way up hill of the pond.
Please offer any advice and sorry for being log winded. Thanks again.
The pond was built about 50 years ago. A corrugated steel pipe rises vertically out of the ground, elbows below the pond, and exits out the back bank leaking into a creek. About 25 years ago, the owner of the pond told me he put a larger, yet thinner corrugated pipe around the old verticsal pipe b/c the old pipe was deteriorating at the top. The new bigger pipe was forced a few feet in the bed of the pond and extended about two feet higher than the existing pipe. He did this to raise the level of the water. There is a spillway on the northeast end of the bank and it simply consists of grass and drains into a mature wooded area eventually ending up in the creek.
When I first moved here, the 1 1/2 acre pond was high. The overflow pipe was apparently clogged and I, at the time, could not see the outter pipe extending vertically out of the water at all. The spillway was damp at the time but did its job.
Some say there was a spring on the southwest side of the pond but I see no evidence of this presently. I feel the pond receives its water supply from run-off only.
The past two months I've noticed plenty of rainfall, yet the pond level stayed low. I went to the back of the bank and saw a trickle of water coming out of the horizontal pipe yet the top of the vertical pipe is about 18 inches above the water.
I am thinking about pouring cement in the smaller original pipe and hope it hardens at the elbow.
Or should I cap the back side of the pipe where it spills out.
I feel I can sure up my spillway and survive any big storms, I just can't see it washing away. My house is way up hill of the pond.
Please offer any advice and sorry for being log winded. Thanks again.