I needed to get started on some posts before everything is completed. The dam construction is underway after 3 years of planning, permitting, reading and learning.

Specifics are as follows:
3.5 Acres
18' water Depth
22'overall height
20'emergency spillway 75 feet wide
175 acres drainage
24" riser
18" drain pipe

I will be posting some pictures hopefully quickly but I noticed that the site does not support taptalk for quick upload from mobile devices. Am I missing something here?

Picture of construction with riser just added in today. I hope to backtrack and post all the older pictures.

Nice Swiss! What part of NE Ga are you in? You cant be too far from me. Let me know if you need help testing the new fish.

Was on site this morning before work. Riser is in as of yesterday. The ground was frozen a bit this morning but the sun should loosen things up today. Objective is to get 3-4 feet of clay over the concrete anti seep collars that we poured yesterday and run the pans to get 5 feet or so of compacted core down good.

A second pan is coming in around noon and the sheeps foot is ready to roll. Had a setback on the second pan with a starter problem but should be solved quickly. I dumped a bunch of rocks in the output of the creek to keep down erosion that I picked up with the tractor this morning.

I see now to first post in the gallery and then link to the gallery.

I am north of Gainesville GA.

We should be working tomorrow also.

looks good any new pictures

They've just started pushing dirt in my pond to be in east Texas, but I already have a question: What size pipe is adequate?

Drainage area 87 acres into 9 or 10 acre lake, max depth 25 to 30 feet, avg depth 10 to 12 feet. Drains pines area with mostly fairly steep slopes, just west of Marshall.

Dirt guy says 8 inch pipe is fine, as spillway will handle heavy rains. But I'm feeling a little uneasy about how small this pipe is.

Also, he uses giant earthmovers that weight 250,000 lbs, says they will compact the dirt fine without a sheepsfoot roller. Done it before without a problem, he says.

Thoughts, anybody? Mike, you've already been out and seen the place with me, I'm the guy with the fake red clay hill that turned out to be full of sand.

PS Enjoying Just Add Water, hope I can get your signature next time I see you!

Anth

Otto will hopefully guide you here if he sees this post, but I have had fully loaded backhoe compact clay in 6" lifts before on a little .25 acre pond, and it's a method that I've read Otto recommend in the past. At 250,000#, you'd think it would certainly do the trick.

However, IIRC Mike prefers sheepsfooting clay in 6" lifts. It's your money, and your pond, so I'd convey your plan to your current contractor you want done, period. I have made the mistake in the past not wanting to rattle sabres with the professional on site who dismissed my concerns I raised - and I now have a few leaky ponds as a result of trying to be polite. I learned a valuable and costly lesson and should have stuck to my guns - and while my dirt guys and I don't eat dinner together or seek each other's company during our free time today, they know if they want to work for my clients I demand clay compaction up to 24" with a sheepsfoot roller without exception. I'm not trying to dismiss their professional experience or opinions, but I want to be 100% safe even if it's overkill. Fixing a leaking pond is damn near impossible, and will cost more than the original construction. Why not play it safe? If they're being paid for it, I don't know why they seem reluctant to do so...maybe it's a pride or time issue?

Obviously, your call. Get with Mike, he'll guide you - let us know what you decide.

Many thanks! I think I'll go with the overkill route. As you say, once the pond is built, it is might tough and expensive to fix problems. At least this way maybe I can eliminate one possible problem!

For whatever it's worth, I strongly support with your decision unless Mike says differently. Finding a leak in a 10 ac lake would be next to impossible. Few things rival lost sleep worrying about precious water seeping from your BOW as all your structure is sticking halfway out of the waterline. Pumping water from well indefinitely is an expensive prospect.

There is always the option of having the compaction tested. It really is not very expensive and it will give you the peace of mind you want.

Call a soil testing company close by and tell them what you are doing, and what you want. If you have any questions get back on the forum and we can lead you through it.

look at the cost of 12 sch 40 pipe it will handle a lot more water and the installation will be the same.

Mike - do you think rolling is overkill if contractor says tire compaction will work? What would you do as the pond owner? Compaction test?

Thanks, Mike. I understand why the dirt guy recommends 8 inch pipe, as it is $20 a foot cheaper and has done okay for his other ponds. I figure it will likely cost $3k more(!) for 12 inch pipe in my setup, but in the long run, it will substantially reduce erosion on the spillway, as it carries more than twice as much water as the 8 inch.

And I will get a soil service to check compaction, as well. If you get a break, maybe I could hire you one day to take a look for any obvious problems. (Obvious to you, that is, not to me!) That won't be for a while, though, as it will take a week of dry weather to get things started again.

12 inch pipe sch 40 can be bought for less than $15 per foot, I think

My schedule 40 12" pipe was $240 per 20' with belled end. Figured out later the 10' pipe with belled end was $100 per pipe. Won't the county size the pipe for you based on real numbers vs guessing what you need?

Thanks, Mike. Maybe I got the wrong quote, seemed to be $23 a foot for 8 inch sch 40 and $43 for 12 inch sch 40. $15 would be a lot more affordable given the amount I'd need.

Ben, the county hasn't done much to help me and I'd be surprised if they went to the trouble here. Given a 35 foot dam, 3 to 1 slope, and T arrangement in back of dam, the math seems to work out to at least 150 feet.

check with a pluming supply store. They can get you going in the right direction

You have about double the length of what I have, lots of pipe. I was referring to the needed pipe diameter. I thought most counties could give you watershed acreage (which you have), runoff coefficients, and rainfall amounts from 10, 25, 50, and 100 year storms for your area. The county here gave me that and actually preformed the calculations for cubic feet of flow. Easier to do with a computer program than by hand as the it runs on a curve. I prefer the numbers as the county here tends to exaggerate on the sizes needed. They said I needed a 26 ft wide emergency spillway, while in reality I needed 16 feet based on the numbers. Our guys are pretty helpful though, shame you do not have the same service there as it is quite beneficial.

All of our government people are over worked and under paid. They have in the past really been helpful and could be today but they are just not available most of the time