Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My pond has a stone dam..

about 3-5 feet after the dam, I see water leaking.

I do not believe the dam is leaking.

My small pond is fed by a running brook. The water runs all the time.
Volume of water varies with the season.
There is a dam at the end of the pond - and the water runs over it and continues down stream as a brook.

There are trees on either side of the waterfall, both before and after the dam.

Last year, I noticed that the pond seemed lower then usual.
And about 3-5 feet after the dam, I saw water leaking out of the rocks of that bank.

A friend and I followed the sound of the water - and pulled up some rocks on the edge just before the dam.
We could see the water running - so it's circumnavigating the dam and coming out of the rock bank after the dam.
We put some red food coloring in there and could see it coming out of the leak area.

I've been looking around the web - and am thinking it's the tree roots of the tree right on the edge of the pond and right before
the dam.

I can have the tree cut down - but where do I go from there?
Will digging up the stump and filling the hole with clay rich dirt solve it - or make it worse?

I've looked and looked for pond engineering/construction people in my area, but have found nothing.

I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance...
-Pond Girl

IF the brook is running at roughly the same rate as usual, BUT your pond is lower, then something has clearly changed at your stone dam.

A tree root is certainly a good candidate, however leaks are notoriously hard to track down prior to digging them out. A growing tree root is capable of shifting the rocks in your dam and opening a flow path, but there could be other causes.

Without seeing your situation - I think digging out that corner of the dam, re-packing with clay, and then re-covering with rocks is a good engineering solution. (You will probably also need to set up a siphon to keep the water level below your work level if the brook is running.)

YOU MUST ALSO ADDRESS THE LEGAL SOLUTION!

In most(?) jurisdictions it is not legal to dam a flowing stream - even if all of the stream and all of the impounded water is completely on property that you own!

If the dam is very old, then you are probably "grandfathered" in to a quasi-legal situation. However, that legal status MAY NOT apply to digging/repairing the dam.

Hopefully, a legal expert will add a response to your post. If not, then please get some legal advice for your state/county before you perform any significant repairs.

Good luck on your project!

Thanks for the response Lunker.

The brook is not running at it's usual rate for this time of year. A few times in the past 10 years, I have seen it pretty low by the end of August (not the end July) .

I see no leak in the corner of the dam. It's on the perpendicular left hand side, further downstream.

I don't know how this dam was built, so I have no idea if the dam is actually wider than what the eye can see.


I hear you about the legal situ. Would love to get some legal insite here.


And if there is any info for someone near me - CT MA - that does this kind of work, I'd certainly appreciate that also.