I am new to the forum so apologize if my post or issue has been addressed previously. I have a 1 acre bass pond that has a leak in the drain. There is a culvert through an old railroad grade with a cement elbow attached that makes the drain level approx 3 feet above the culvert. The water is supposed to drain through the top of the cement, into the culvert, life is good, the pond is happy. Unfortunately, water has other plans and is following the outside of the cement, below the drain level, to either a crack in the cement or a leak at the connection point between the elbow and the culvert. I can hear the water running in the tube. I have riprap in front of the drain, but this has been a temporary solution as water goes around and under the riprap, eats away at the dirt next to cement, and when the pond is fulll hits he drain, wash away the dirt and finds the leak. I lost 3 feet of the pond last week. I did not construct the drain, this is my best estimation. My idea is to throw a bunch of bentonite in the 3 foot pool that has been created next to the drain and put more rocks and riprap in front of it. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts or help on a solution!!
How many years has the drain been in the dam? Is the culvert one of those corrugated, galvanized ones?
If Bentonite doesn't fix it I am afraid that you will probably have to drain the pond so the water is below the culvert, or install a coffer dam on the pond side of the culvert, dig it out and replace it.
Approx 10 years. There is the cement drain on pond side and it looks like concrete tube on back side of railroad grade. So I'm guessing it's all concrete. They must have bored it out when they put it in. The dirt guy also did a couple pasture dams, one failed and one was going to fail before I had it fixed so not sure he really knew what he was doing. I have tried to track him down to find out what's under the 20 feet of railroad grade and what he put in but haven't been able to. Replacement seems a substantial cost/project. My fish guy said plug the thing w concrete and let it drain into the field on other end, but original purpose of dam/pond was attempt to help field drain.
When installing a pipe through the dam on a new pond construction project, the entire length of the pipe run is (usually) packed very carefully with the best clay on location. Anti-seep collars are also installed to stop the very problem you seem to be describing. The rest of the dam is then completed over the drainage pipe run.
If the original builder bored a space through a tall railroad embankment, then it is very unlikely that he cut the embankment all of the way to the top and compacted clay around the entire pipe run.
He probably packed clay around the pipe at each side of the embankment. I also suspect he did not install any anti-seep collars.
My non-expert advice, would be to search the PB forum on anti-seep collars and get a feel for what might work in your situation. Then go back and look at your railroad embankment and estimate your costs to dig down all of the way from the top to expose the entire length of the drainage pipe. (This will be a big job because you probably won't be able to just "trench" down through the embankment.)
If that cost is acceptable, then dig out the pipe and replace or re-install it properly with good clay compaction around the pipe and two? anti-seep collars.
If the total excavation cost is too high, then dig out both ends of the pipe and install an anti-seep collar at each end and then re-pack your excavations with good clay using some type of mechanical compaction equipment. [Be careful excavating at the base of a slope. This is an inherently dangerous type of excavation due to potential slope collapse.]
Hopefully, some of our actual experts will chime in with better solutions.
I saw a YouTube video of a dirt guy digging out what looked to be a 36" or greater concrete drain that was installed by someone else. The first guy put the sections of concrete drain in backwards so the seals between the sections weren't doing their job when water was going through the drain.
Talk to TJ here about the Polymer sealant that he sells. It works better than bentonite and might be something you want to try.
I know it sounds expensive,and it might be, but it would be less expensive than to watch the dam fail and see everything wash out through the hole in the dam.....
I saw a YouTube video of a dirt guy digging out what looked to be a 36" or greater concrete drain that was installed by someone else. The first guy put the sections of concrete drain in backwards so the seals between the sections weren't doing their job when water was going through the drain.
Unbelievable!
As forum members have pointed out many, many times:
There are contractors that dig holes in the ground, and there are contractors that build ponds!
Thank you all for the information it is greatly appreciated. I will do some research on the collars, that seems a much more workable solution than a trench 20 feet down to the tube.
If it is not possible to perform an easy and affordable solution, then a siphon is another possibility.
Does the concrete pipe function as your "normal" pond drain AND emergency outflow? If so, then I would not recommend any solution that would reduce your water outflow capacity.
However, if the concrete pipe is primarily just used to set the normal pool elevation in your pond and you have a good workable emergency spillway, then you could get by with a siphon system under certain conditions!
What is the internal diameter of your existing concrete culvert? Do you have the legal right to alter the RR grade embankment in any fashion that you desire? Is the ground where your culvert drains significantly lower than the inlet side?
The maximum theoretical height a siphon can "lift" water is about 33 feet at sea level. (The maximum decreases as your land elevation increases.)
However, it is difficult to do engineering tasks at the theoretical maximum. You might be able to start a siphon going up the entire 20' over the embankment. In my opinion, if you could cut the embankment down to an elevation above your maximum flood stage, you could then run the siphon pipe out at that lesser elevation and more easily initiate your siphon water draw.
As a general "rule of thumb", your siphon outlet elevation should be at least 4' lower than your inlet elevation. If the area your pond currently drains into is lower than the bottom of your pond, then you could even install a bottom-drain siphon. If not, then you can set the inlet off the bottom and still regulate the elevation of your pond water level using just the siphon.
If you need a very large diameter PVC pipe for your siphon, then that solution will also be expensive. However, if you can get by with a small siphon, then that is much cheaper to purchase and MUCH easier to install.
There are good "siphon" threads on the forum that show how to install a self-starting siphon as a pond drain.
The pond has a metal culvert and spillway (that needs fixed also) across on the non rr grade bank. Pond was supposed to drain thru the leaking cement drain but they set the other metal culvert just low enough it drains there too (before the concrete sprung the leak) The siphon sounds like a great option (if I have to seal off the leaking cement), especially if we got a lot of rain as the spillway side drains to a crop field. The pond is spring fed and doesn't have a large area that drains to it. I can do anything w the grade. I think I could run a siphon, I know I'm not running anything that is digging a 30 foot trench to set a new pipe, that would be a call to new dirt guy. The swamp on the other side of grade is lower, I don't know how much in feet or degrees the pipe angles at.. The culvert thru grade is around 16 inches, w my spade I haven't gotten it all exposed and got exact measurement. I will do some research on the siphon, thank you!
