Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site 1 acre pond - have questions

Hi - I'm new to this site and am looking for some expert advise on my proposed pond. I've got 80 acres, mostly heavily wooded, that has a high water table. I had an excavator dig a 20'x20' by 10' deep test hole last summer. He was digging in water at around 2 feet deep. The hole filled to within 2 feet of the ground level very quickly and stayed there all summer long. It never dropped at all, even though we had a very dry summer.

A couple other facts on this site. At some point in the past a previous owner had excavated a small hole, around 30'x40', that is spring fed and flows via a tube into an adjacent river. It too maintains its water level all year long. Next, I put in a shallow 1 1/4" well by hand this past summer. I had pumpable water at around 3 feet, but continued down to around 25 feet, at which point I ran out of pipe. I assumed that because I had water at 3 feet, that I would have water at 25 feet - wrong! I must have ended up in a clay layer. Another 10 feet down I was back in water and ended up with a flowing well that produces about 1 gallon per minute.

The county soil type puts the site at 26 - Gilford Sandy Loam.

Not sure if that info is beneficial to anyone but I threw it out anyways.

So does this sound like a good site for a fish pond? I would like it to end up around 3/4 to 1 acre in surface area. What about depth? I've read that I should have 40% in 15-20ft depth to prevent summer/winter die offs.

The area is heavily wooded and needs to be cleared first. I need to build a berm around the pond to prevent seasonal flooding (fall/winter) from entering the pond. I was planning on using the spoils from the pond to build this berm.

So many things to consider. What do you think? What am I overlooking? Thanks.

How far up in Michigan are you? That has some bearing on how much ice to expect in the Winter (& hence on recommended depth).

Hey NTCPA...welcome to the PB forum.
My brother built a pond waaay up nort dere in Hancock. He got good assistance from the government resources for guidance. I'm not sure if it was the NRCS or DNR....or both. I would start with the NRCS (a division of your county USDA).
There are plenty of ponds that follow the water table. The obvious concern is fluctuation. Are there any other ponds in the area? Can you introduce yourself and discuss it with the owners? Maybe get some names of reliable/reputable dirt guys? Another interesting source (if it is available in MI) is the DNR well drilling records. They can be difficult to find on their website if they are even provided. I know you can get them for some of the midwest states. They will show the types of soils and what depths they were encountered during drilling. If there are any nearby water wells (or, in some areas, even the gas company test wells) they will help you understand the soil compositions.

I'm in SW Lower MI. We are in the "snow belt" of lake Michigan. This winter we are already over 100" of snow. This morning we are currently at -10 degrees (colder than normal). Normal ice depth is around 6" on average.

My pond site is 1/4 mile off the road in the middle of my woods. Can the small previously dug pond be enlarged without permits? I don't want big brother on my back, but I also don't want to be told I can't dig the pond. Any experiences of asking for forgiveness instead of permission?

Sometimes forgiveness can be expensive. Lusk's classic story is a guy on a tributary of the Brazos who spent a lot of time and money after the fact to keep from having to tear out his unlicensed pond - something like $8k in postage alone, not to mention lawyer fees.

IMHO, ascertain exactly what you are allowed to do first, and who (local, state, Feds) you have to satisfy before making that decision.

NTCPA, welcome to the forum, I can sympathize with your snow problem. We're in the lake Ontario snow belt, 118 inches so far with 39 inches on the ground.
Dig your pond as deep as possible to help avoid winterkill, the heavy snow and cold really add to the challenge of keeping your fish alive.

Welcome to the forum glad you found us.

Most of time we try and gather up water to keep the ponds full you are blessed.

adirondack pond is sure right dig as deep as possible.

NonTypicalCPA,

Sounds like we are nearly neighbors and have several of the same questions. I'm just new here as well, waiting for the weather to break so I can take some pictures and start posting all my questions here. I shot you a PM with some of my thoughts, let me know what you think. Thanks.

Bryan

Welcome bryani289swmi Glad you founf us.

We love pictures.

Hello fellow bean counter! I must ask you to please help in preserving the conservative nature of our profession by following my example on this forum and only post fact filled, quality posts, that are either informative in nature or are articulate, well thought out inquiries.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Originally posted by JHAP:


This from the man whose lectured at the last Pond Boss meeting on

"Securitization of Purina Mills collateralized debt obligations derived from anticipated earnings based on projected protein requirements of Condello Strain Lepomis species: A Can't Miss Opportunity for All Forum Members"

Oh sure blame me for that financial fiasco. For your information I used only the finest analytical procedures during my analysis of the potential income stream from Condello Strain Lepomis.

And of course I double tested my analytical procedures.

Yes another beancounter here. Any tax questions out there? "Is my pond construction cost a tax write off?" ..... MAYBE

Here's another question. My pond site sits in the middle of a mature woods that will need to be cleared. The surrounding woods is mainly soft maple. It has been logged pretty hard and the remaining trees max out at around 24" diameter. I still expect a lot of leaves making their way into the pond. How quickly will this become a problem in a 1 acre pond? Is there anything that I can do to prevent negative consequences from the leaves?

Aeration. Aglime may well be indicated depending on soil pH.

You might consider clearing the trees back a little further on the windward side of the pond, and perhaps adding leaf-catching shrubs around it. Although if the trees are tall (I have trees probably 75+ft high in the woods enxt to one pond), dead leaves can travel an amazing distance throught the air to reach the water.

I don't have power available to the pond site. Is there a solar option for aeration?

First,let me welcome you to the forum,and let you know that we really enjoy pics around here.
Second,and Im going out on a limb hear,that if your answers about taxes are anything like JHAP'S answers you should 1)read his disclaimers before proceeding and 2)only expect questions from A)crazy people or B)somebody that wants to wind up in jail.
Oh by the way,when Im drinking beer by the pond,can I write that off on my taxes?

Tom, according to Internal Revenue Code, to be deductible, a business expense must be both ordinary and necessary. An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in your trade or business. A necessary expense is one that is helpful and appropriate for your trade or business. An expense does not have to be indispensable to be considered necessary. Normally when asked whether or not beer would be deductible I would say only as an entertainment expense and therefore only 50% would be tax deductible AND even then only if you were entertaining a client or vendor. But since I've come to know you some Tom I think there could possibly be an argument that beer is both an ordinary and necessary business expense for you. Talk it over with your tax preparer and see what they have to say - be sure to bring a few beers with you to the meeting.

Hey JHAP, aren't you (and Bski) one of the Solar Aeration contemplaters around here?

Theoretically yes but I think you'll find that a solar aeration system will get fairly costly in a hurry. It's been a while but about 2 years ago I priced out (both as a packaged system, and as home designed effort) a solar aeration system for my 3 acre pond and the cost approached $10,000 (panels, charge controller, inverter, wiring, batteries, etc, etc).

Another alternative is a windmill system. Perhaps someone can discuss this alternative.

Three minute response time, how's that for a fast answer.(answer to Theo posted at 11:42)

I'm supposed to be doing taxes, shhhhh don't tell the boss.

I should point out that when I was designing and pricing a solar aeration system I was tying to design a system that would emulate a normal aeration system in other words one that would be timer controlled so that it could run during the evenings or when ever it was necessary regardless of PV generation. When you attempt to do this you must have adequate amp hours of storage in a battery bank and this gets fairly expensive. Solar power is just not very cost efficient as of yet.

Bobad has experience with a smaller, cheap cost efficient system for his barn and compressor. Hopefully he checks in. IIRC, he discussed on the Solar Energy thread.
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