Hi!
My son and his wife recently purchased a house on a small lot in a subdivision. Now that spring has hit and they have taken possession of the home, we learn that there is an active natural spring sogging up the road edge of the lawn on theirs and the two neigboring properties. Water was spilling gently over the curb on running down the gutters. Is there any chance that we can make a SMALL pond in his yard that is fed by this spring? would it keep spilling over? I would like to make lemonade from this lemon.
Thanks
Arlene3

Arlene,

Welcome to Pond Boss.

My first thoughts, based on your questions, is -- absolutely yes!

However, I would wait at least until the end of October to see if the spring is still flowing to make a determination.

If your son and his wife decide they would like to have a pond from this water, I would strongly suggest that they build it entirely on their own lot. The water can certainly be shared with neighbors who also want to build their own ponds, but joint ownership of ponds can lead to some very nasty situations.

Depending on pond size, it is possible that they could fill and partially supplement a pond from this spring, but they may have to use their house water supply for some of the water.

Give us an idea of what size pond they may be anticipating. Will it be just a few thousand gallons in a liner or poly pool, a tenth of an acre, a half acre, or even bigger? If not using a liner or pre-fab pool, do they have good clay to seal the pond so it will hold water?

Regards,
Ken

Thank you Ken!
The pond couldn't be much larger than one of the larger pre-formed ponds at a garden center. I am pretty sure that the spring will keep flowing, because a neighbor introduced herself and said she'd been fighting city hall on the problem for several years. BUT that it hadn't always been like that. It was enough water to be trickling down both sides of the road for a long way.

If it hasn't always been this way, there may be a leak in the municipal system. Ask the water department to come take a sample and test it. If it's from a municipal leak they should be able to tell from the amount of fluoride. A lot of MI water has fluoride added and it won't dissipate quickly. I would certainly rule this out before I built a pond based on this water.

I did a couple summers with the local water department during college. We used the fluoride testing a couple times to find and fix problems that we wouldn't have found otherwise.

In a subdivision, that's what I'd first suspect (leaking pipes).