Looking at purchasing some property with several ponds; and wanted to hear your thoughts and/or concerns about an 8 acre pond with the attached overflow pipe. From historical google earth, the pond is about 20 years old. The pipe shown in the attached picture is about 20 ft tall; about 10" diameter; and extends away from the center of the dam a good distance such that there is no visible erosion on the dam itself. Large boulders are present where the water splashes over. Water does trickle down the pipe and there is some minor corrosion present. It looks like the pipe OD was originally coated but now is falling off. The angled pipe braces holding it the discharge pipe look in good shape. There is a secondary overflow off the side of the dam; just a natural overflow; but doesn't seem to be used as there is no erosiol evidence. It appears that this setup / pipe looks to carry the majority of the water. This year has seen record rainfall so I would think that any outflow via the secondary overflow would have shown itself.

I'm not sure if this if the outlet is a drop over pipe/basin or true siphon? There are cattails all over the damn adjacent to the overflow tube but I couldn't immediately see where the water spills over. The landowner doesn't know either; they only owned this place for a year and are selling already.

I guess my concerns are for life expectancy and stability - other than a hole in the pipe I would guess my biggest fear would be a total failure?

Sorry for I wish I would have taken more pictures. Thanks Scott in NW Oklahoma

Tough to tell what is going on, but maybe pipe runs straight through dam down low, and rise in pipe near outlet maintains water level in pond? Seems like if it got real cold and water was not flowing, an ice block could occur?

I think this is how it was designed - maybe pipe runs straight through dam down low, and rise in pipe near outlet maintains water level in pond

Not much concern for ice block here in Oklahoma; if it did get plugged the secondary run off would handle the extra flow.

Not my favorite setup, but it should work as long as pipe maintains integrity.

Thanks for your replies; someone else jumped in and has a contract on the land now.

Maybe not all bad as I can see that setup have major headache wrote all over it, #1 if that is the elevation control one would think any amount of water falling that far would create a hell of an erosion. #2 although the pipe is seemingly intact presently, it shows signs of pretty serious corrosion and if that thing ever rusts through down low it appears most of the dam would have to be excavated to replace it, along with most of the contents of the pond, if not all of them. jmo

Yeah this is what scared me, too!
[/quote] if that thing ever rusts through down low it appears most of the dam would have to be excavated to replace it, along with most of the contents of the pond, if not all of them. jmo[/quote]

Agree with Jake

It's probably for the best, at least for you. That pond is a disaster in waiting, in my opinion. Rust off, drain, then all you have is an 8 acre mudpit that would cost many thousands to fix.