My wife and I have a contract on a home with an existing pond. Currently, the dam is completely washed out in about a 10 foot section. Based on google earth historical images, it is a natural .4 acre pond that was dammed in 1999, failed sometime around 2005, was repaired again in 2011 and failed again in 2016. It is creek and well fed, and about 3/4 acre and 25-30 feet deep when it is actually holding water. I believe the issue to be a rock shelf is going through the dam at the failure point, guessing water is running along that rock shelf until it just completely washes out.

I would like to have a contractor come in and use dirt and such from expanding the pond in order to repair it permanently. I am having trouble finding someone in the area with pond experience to come out and give me a quote. Any suggestions? I can upload pictures I have of the damage if that helps.

Thanks in advance!

A couple of thoughts.
The NRCS generally keeps a list of pond builders. However, there are no qualifications to be added to the list. Check some references.

Best idea: Drive around the area looking for ponds. If/when you see one, stop and ask who did it, whether they would use that guy again and what they might have done different.

Well I've called all the NRCS offices in the area, none maintain a list of contractors. Called just about every single excavation company in the area from google searches with no luck on anyone with pond experience.

The search continues.

I would call American Sportfish and see if they have any recommendations.

https://www.pondboss.com/Resources?lid=309&lci=33

Reviving this thread since it has been a while.

Had 1 company come out and quote me 84k. This was to dig out all of the rock from the dam, and bring in 1400 yards of clay to rekey it properly. They wanted me to sign a waiver saying they would not be responsible if it didn't hold.

Another company said 64k to dig out the rock and basically do the same thing. For 50k they would rebuild a dam in front of the rock and existing dam making the pond smaller.

Both agreed that the dam was built to high and not enough slope. Both would need to completely drain the pond and reroute the creeks in order to do the work, killing the fish in the pond. These quotes seem very high to me so of course I am holding off on proceeding with anything.

That's about it for the proper repair job, on the other hand, the pond is still about half an acre. It is still 6-10 foot deep in spots. The top of the dam is still probably 10-12 feet above the water level. Best of all, it has fish in it still, I have caught tons of bass and bream in it in the previous months. I have seen bait fish etc, but every bass I have caught is definitely on the skinny side. Two that I have caught had crawfish and a frog in it's throat, so I don't think there is enough bait fish for the bass to be healthy which brings up my next point. The pond get TONS of watershed. It is fed by 2 creeks that flow all the time, after a rain they are raging into the pond. It is also well fed, so constant input of water. How it is holding now and the fish are still in it, the previous owner stacked some concrete bags through the washed out dam and the water is flowing through but it still maintains the water level.

My question is, could I potentially build on what is keeping some water in now? Adding some more concrete bags on top of the rock and building it up along with a proper drain pipe. I'm basically trying to get the water level up an additional 3-4 feet which would expand the pond by a large amount. I'm not trying to seal it, think of it as almost designing it to leak but getting the max water level due to how much water goes into it daily.

I will get some pictures of it and upload them for clarity.

Pics, if they work


The smaller of the 2 creeks


From the bank where the water should be if not washed out, see dam breach in the back corner


Waters edge, looking up at the dam


Wash out, you can see all the rock through the dam and the stuff stacked to keep water in. We just got 2 inches of rain so it's flowing hard.






On top of the dam looking back at the side fed by the creeks

Theoretically, you could try to 'rebuild' things to just above the level of water that holds year round.

While this is not optimal, it's certainly a possibility.

In order to do it right, I think you would be best off to at least partially drain the pond down several feet to where you could more effectively work on the existing damn from 2-3 feet of freeboard and on down a few feet. This would create a better opportunity to do some kind of stand pipe/outflow pipe.

If there wasn't a properly sized overflow pipe AND a correctly built emergency overflow, then that could be a reason why the dam failed.

Honestly, draining, re-contouring and doing it correctly is the best bet, the fish are the least costly thing about fixing the pond, I wouldn't let the fish population stand in my way. You could just leave the pond as it is and not put any more $$ into it, but if it isn't a usable pond as it is, then why even have it there?

The overflow and emergency overflow have to be able to handle the volume of water that the creek can provide during a 100 year rain event, and I'm guessing that is what caused the failure in the first place.

What county in Alabama is the pond located in?

Pond is in Shelby County.

It has an existing spillway but I don't think it was built properly. It currently has a bunch of cut up trees in it, not sure if that happened after the dam breach or before. Either way it needs to be cleaned up.

During any rain event it gets a TON of water, it's basically in a valley coming off of a mountain with the 2 creeks feeding into it. Both contractors that have looked at it want to completely get rid of all rock, lower the dam height, rekey it, reslope it. My biggest concern is if it will even be possible to account for the amount of water flowing into it.

There are 4 ponds within a quarter mile of me, we all have rocky soil, I can't be the only one with some rock in the mix.

I am possibly not completely understanding the whole issue, the pond seems to hold water reasonably well up to the breach?
If so I am not sure what re coring the dam will help, theoretically you will need to repair the breach and whatever higher you want to make it, which can possibly be done from the backside, adding additional slope and beef up the dam, your biggest issue I see is the huge amount of water you have coming thru there peridically.

Which means you will have to spend the most effort to create an overflow solution that will handle the amount of water without breaching, which sounds like they didnt have twice already when it washed out.
I have a brother that lives in Tuscaloosa county and he has a big pond that was built on Drummond land, they actually put a concrete spillway in that pond, its actually a small lake, maybe 5 acres. looks like an expensive way to do it but for the amount they are quoting to rebuild it may be worth it.

I would probably lean toward consulting with an engineer to calculate what size overflow structure would be advisable for your scenario. Good Luck!

Basically I'm being told that the dam has to be redone because it has a rock face going through it. Not because the amount of water, they are blaming the rock and saying as long as the rock is there, it will keep happening.

Thanks. I will see what I can find out.