I came home from work this afternoon a pulled up on the road to look at my dam from the truck, I had been concern with all the rain we had been getting (7”+ this week)and wanted to make sure that water was flowing through the overflow. That was working well but I noticed a trench developing directly over the drain pipe. This somewhat surprised me as I do regular inspections and had not noticed any issues before, I had removed a couple drain logs just earlier in the week. I came back down and got as near to the dam as I could with the tractor and walked down, it was then I noticed the trench had been dug with a shovel. There were several small piles of dirt and sod, and boot tracks all over near the trench. I quickly drove the tractor around the block to gain access (the road was flooded by the water that been discharged throughout the week, at least 2.5’ on the road). I carefully waded the tractor into the overflow and to the trench dumping 7-8 buckets and packing them down best I could. I experienced difficulties with some folks when I first bought the place (a couple guys smashed my car with bats and pipes totaling it, etc) but it has been relatively quiet for 10 years or so expect for the occasional trash dumping. Called a few of the neighbors and they hadn’t noticed anything today. One neighbor had driven through at about 1:30 and all was fine then, so I figured it happen between then and 4:00 as that is when I saw it. We had gotten nearly 4” of rain since last night so that time frame made sense as the boot prints didn’t look like they had been rained on. Needless to say I’m on full alert now. As a note this pond is 26 acres and floods no other property, it is a low bowl without an outlet so someone couldn’t be pissed that it was backing up onto their place.

Bryan

PS- How do I add the picture directly into my post?

Man, that just burns me up! I hope you find out who did that. You almost want to think it's someone down stream who wants the water considering that your lake does not floor anyone else's land.


When you click the link in your original post and open up the pic, right click on it and select View Image Info.

Copy the stuff that starts with "http....." and ends with "...jpeg"

Paste that into a reply area and then add [img] immediately in front of it, and [/img] immediately behind it, and when you post the reply, the image should be in the post.

I pity you man. If it was me and I went down to my pond to see something like that every blood vessel in my head would just pop. it's something how disrespectful some people are when it comes to other peoples property.

Thanks Sunil, you are my hero for the picture methodology. Only one problem with the downstream thought, there is no downstream. I am it. There is no outlet, not flooding anyone elses place even now on the upstream side. I just checked with the county road commission and they say they didn't touch it which makes sense, most are too lazy to run a shovel. Only have one neighbor that I haven't spoke to and he would fit in with the road commission for the lazy part, so that is doubtful. Maybe I have someone in my fanclub that I'm not yet aware of.

Bryan

The ground is quite saturated in many parts of Michigan. Quite a few places have busted above the seams. Your BOW, due to the rain, may be causing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to other residences.

When Mother nature happens, we are not separate entities!

JKB,

There is no upstream or downstream issue, I am it. I am the end of the line. Water would need to flow uphill a minimum of 10' to even get close to getting out at the lowest point of my property. The upstream would back into my fields before going anywhere, I would say that needs to raise up close to 15' to impact even the road culverts. Believe me, there ain't no damage going on, a dam in one form or another has been here for 50 years.

Bryan

I would definitely report it to the cops.

Great minds think alike Dave, already been done

If you are the end of the line, Why?

That is a very serious offense ! People have been shot for much less.

Let us know what they say, with official reports!

It would be interesting to know for future reference, up here in MI!

JKB,

I guess I'm the end of the line because the good Lord made it that way. It is a bowl with no outlet, has always been that way. It has been that way for at least 100 years as it's been in my wifes family for that long. Maybe I'm missing the point.

Bryan

So then, the water that was flowing through that malicious cut in the damn just flows lower down on to your property?

Maybe some more pics, but I'm not fully visualizing the situation.

My great grandparents used to own a piece of property that had a nice small lake on it..After they sold it it was never maintained and kids kind of partied at it all the time.. Well, needless to say the same thing happened to that lake... Finally after about 30 years it was repaired and is a nice small lake again... Wish everyday they never would have sold it, would give my wife for that piece of property!!!



Did I just say that?


Just kidding honey!!!

Would that cut cause your dam to erode enough that it would fail? If so you have a bad enemy.

I'm glad you got to it before it became a serious breach.I think it may be a good time to buy a few game cameras.

Did they leave their shovel there? If it was me and I found out who it was they'd have a shovel up their you know what.

I'm with kenc, how much damage could that cut have done? Also, to dig that trench would take a looong time for one person and a shovel. Also, if this trench is above the drain pipe, wouldn't an emergency spillway have come into play soon?

SCARY STORY!!! hope you catch the col-prate and he stays away from my ponds! I dont get to see them every day!

Get a game camera..

That little cut, if left unattended, could have breached the whole dam with the rain that is coming down. You'd be suprised how fast moving water eroded dirt.

Glad that you caught it in time. If you hadn't, I'd hate to see what it would have cost to fix it and get the fishery back up to it's current shape.

Scott, how much water did you get?

Nowhere near enough. Maybe 2.5" last two days total up 'till now. I'll know more in the a.m. Pond came up between 4" and 5" as of 4 p.m. today. Still a good 4' low.......

It just keeps raining here Scott. Hopefully that will be the case at your location.

Update: 12:46 A.M. It's pouring!

Being directly over a drain pipe would make me first think erosion and soil collapse causing the trench....also wondering why a drain pipe if no outflow. (and there is clearly considerable outflow there) Sure seems to be a lot of effort to do some dangerous and malicious activity if there is no dam to breach.

My thoughts exactly. Once water is moving, no shovel needed. Your dam could be completely destroyed in minutes.

This will get a lot of "Randy's a %#@^&$#@% idiot", but it won't be the first time: could this have been the work of a friend that saw your drain pipe not handling the large amount of water, and he tried to do this to help you - not really understanding the long term trouble he could be causing???

For information purposes let it be known that I have cut a old dam on a 1 ac pond (on a property I purchased) with just a shovel before during a heavy rain event. I have seen a trench dug 1 shovel width like that turn into a hole big enough to park a vehicle in a conventional Dam when all was done.

This burns me up just thinking about it! To me it is like dumping a box full of fuel-soaked rags into a barn.

Even worse if the dam breached and did cause damage to another property, you would likely be liable for that damage.

Definitely track this SOB down.

I would be willing to bet it is someone who thinks you are to blame for a dried up well, or just plain jealous.

Evil...eco-terrorism.

I'll post a few pictures (if I can post photos correctly)to hopefully clear up some of the questions previously asked.

Picture looking from where water flows in (lower right corner). Water would need to raise several feet to back up onto anyone elses property as I'm still standing on mine taking the photo. Dam is in upper left corner.




Dam, overflow, breach,and water control device area (upper right). Note the hill water would need to flow up to escape, 4-5' deep on road surface.

Looking directly down the overflow and dam, breach at far end, road would be to the left.



Looking down dam length in the other direction, breach area in forefront

Got any overhead/satellite type pics?

I'm still not clear on what's all going on here.

Pond looking towards where inlet shot was taken, I was standing nearly in line with visable white roof. Dam area is tucked in the far upper right corner.





Looking down from the top of the road hill pictured in one of the previous pictures. Dam area on left side.

View from the house, overflow area closest (where water flows when it is over the road), the edge of the pond behind it.

Satellite view, dam area in green, inlet area at top of photo, road on right side, overflow long skinny BOW on bottom, house shop on very bottom

If the road is public, could someone have driven down it and thought by digging the trench they'd drop the water level below the road level?

I'll also attempt to answer some questions. I think the cut would have eroded enough to cause dam failure, I'd guess at the rate it was expanding far less than 24 hours. This dam was installed by the Michigan Wildlife Habitat Foundation under the direction of the NRCS, probably close to 20 years ago. There has been some type of dam in place for far longer than that. The emergency spill way was working well, I think this is only the 3rd time it has been used. I have considered cameras but don't know how I would hide them, they could just cut the tree down if spotted for easy removal. As rainman suggested my first thought was pipe collapse, perhaps muskrat damage and I wish it had been that but I'm still getting good flow out the 12" outlet pipe. I've spoken to most of my friends and neighbors and they understand how water erodes so it's very doubtful they were trying to "help" out. Average normal depth is 6'maybe a touch more so there aren't any fish at this time. The red outlines in the satview are where I'll be working the dragline. At the moment I'm waiting to speak in person with the local authorities.

Bryan

FWIW, you're about 90 miles as the crow flies from my place.

essup,

Just take a road trip, a couple hours and you'd be here. We could even do some muddin' on the road with your truck, I don't charge much for tows! Actually the road is a two track non-maintained county road, and it's lower than the dam outlet. The county likes having it there as I hold more water back than before it was installed. It's going to be an entertaining summer with that much water down there, lots of people getting stuck!

Bryan

We have a client near Holland. I'll give you a shout next time we have to be up that way.

I hope you get it figured out.

One thing for sure is, we do not need any more rain at this moment!

I wonder if it is someone who has been trying to use that road, and not pleased about being cut off?

FWIW If you wanted you could mount a camera that automatically sends the pics to your email.. You might be sacrificing the camera for answers the camera could also be camo'd and hidden only other option I see is catching in the act, and I'd doubt the guys out there causing destruction on a predictable schedule..

It's been pretty quiet this weekend. Did speak with the local authorities and tried to meet the cop down there but he didn't have any interest in meeting me. He said he would check it out when he was in the area, I sincerely doubt he has or will check it out. I've had this problem in the past with some cops on garbage dumping but I guess that is how it goes. Been pondering those who might be in my fanclub. There are a couple folks I had trouble with for trespass violations and property destruction but nothing in the last 1.5 years. Liquidsquid, I doubt it was someone who is angered the road is closed, sometimes it is unpassable for months at a time. If the dam weren't there it would be unpassable much more often. Thanks.

Bryan

How big were the footprints? This could be the work of some neighborhood kids playing in the rain.

Captain1,

There were one set of prints, nearly the same size as my 12's. I have one individual I need to have a discussion with which will happen on May 11, should be interesting. Thanks.

Bryan

Keep us posted. We'll even bail you out if need be!!