Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Another pond report from East Texas

My Dad called a few minutes ago from my lake. The water is up within 6 inches of the bottom of my pier - thats the highest it has ever been. The 12" siphion is "running wild" according to my Dad. No water over the spillway, but close. I suppose the 12" pipe can handle a lot of water, we have yet to see any water go over my emergency spillway.

A year ago you could walk all the way across my pond, now completely full. What a difference a year makes.

More room for fish and for old Pete and friends to hide.

Gator, thanks for the report – I am very interested in any reports of success and failure of any siphon spillway systems during this record rainfall period.

In our N. E. Texas area we have been spared the record rainfall that is prevalent west of I-35, but have had a total of 6+ inches the past few days.
So far our siphon system is handling the rising water very well.

Gator, what county are you in? My pond is in Wood County and two weeks ago we were still 3' from spillway. I will be out there again next week and I am hopefull for progress. We have come up 3' in the last two months. I actually don't want a completely full pond as it was built without any protection other than the spillway.

George,

I just came back from checking on my lake. The siphon system is working beautifully. Thus far it has handled all the rain since filling up in mid January. I catch about 1 foot rise for every 1 inch of runoff rain, there is two feet of freeboard between the drain and the emergency spillway...thus far no water has gone over the spillway.

Just for fun I capped off the siphon breaker pipe today - WOW - the water really starts to excellerate out of the end of the drain pipe. I dont know how much water is being moved through the pipe but it is a lot of fun to watch.

Sandbox, Im in NW Anderson County.

Thus far I know what drought and excessive rain years are like...I wonder what its like on a normal year?

: )

1 foot rise for every 1 inch of rain! I wish I were half that fortunate! Our Wood county pond watershed is many feet of sand - even with these incredible rain events runoff is scarce. I have to build several terraces to keep the sand from filling up the pond. The end result is less erosion but also a slower fill up. I only see about 3 inches of rise per inch of rain.
We close the dam at Thanksgiving and we still need 4 feet to reach the spillway.

Has anyone had luck with clearing brush and debris around the pond and compressing soil to get better runoff?

I'm with you Captain. I would love to see that kind of runoff. My problem may be slightly different. The entire runoff area is thick with pines and hardwoods. All the debris under the trees seems to stop and hold the water before soaking into the sandy soil. For any rain event under 1.5" I get virtually no runoff. With the big 6" rain this Spring, the pond came up 18". All the rain over the last couple weeks has helped to improve things by saturating the soil (about 2" for every 1" rain).

Someday, I may get up enough nerve to try a controlled(?) burn. Wouldn't even dare to think such a thing the last two years.

I get runoff, BUT you guys have all the REAL gud stuff, aka - black gold, in those deep sandy soils in far East Texas.

: )

Sandbox, Runoff has two faces, especially in East Texas.....and the face not usually seen can get rather ugly in our area. We can get some absolutely incredible rainfall amounts which can and will overwhelm any pipe system and sometimes even natural spillways....with predictable effects on the dam.

Knowing this full well, when I built my 4 acre pond, the chosen location had only about 3 acres of watershed. The NRCS said it would never fill or if it did would never hold water in most of the pond. For 6 years now it has been mostly full dropping only about two feet during the recent two years of drought, but more importantly has weathered several "100 year" rain events during that time....events which would have overwhelmed the dam in almost any location on my property with substantial watershed.

Just this year alone we had 11.5 inches in one day...imagine that as 12 feet of water runoff. No pipe system will handle that and even two good spillways will be tested as well. Before that Rita dumped about 12-13 inches in 18 hours and before that we've had 36 inches over a three day period.

If you followed "the book", my 4 acre pond would have never been built....on the other hand, if you followed "the book" and built it with 100 acres or so of watershed, it would not be here today.

Sandbox, we had an "uncontrolled" burn a few years ago right next to what was to become a portion of our pond shoreline. We accidentally burned about an acre of pine needles and brush below our pine forest before we were able to put it out. Today that area is absolutely magnificent. Grasses have grown on the forest bed and all thorns and vines are gone. The drainage off that area is not eroding the soils. IF I were able to manage a controlled burn I would do it.

Meadowlark, NRCS said the same thing about my pond site. Too much sand and not enough water shed. We are 4 foot shy of being a full 2 1/2 acre pond and have already filled in a good 15 feet of depth. We had been losing about an inch a week if no rain fell, but since the soils have finally saturated I am seeing only a fraction of an inch drop each week. I'm sure when the 100 degree days return it will drop.

I now dub thee "Meadowlark the Prophet". How timely was your post. Three weeks ago I was quite pleased that I was only 3' below spillway. I started the year 7' below spillway. I arrived at the pond on Tuesday to find I was only 1.5' below spillway (highest in the 3 years we have owned the property). "Wife, pinch me I'm dreaming!" By the time we left on Friday, we were 6" over spillway. From despair to hope to elation to "uh oh!" in less than two months. Welcome to East Texas. I will finally post pictures when I get them downloaded. I have been too embarressed to call myself a pond owner, yet alone "boss", until now.