I just purchased a home in TN and it is in a flood zone. There is a creek that runs yr round around the back and side of the property. I bought the house w/o even walking it. Once I went to the property I noticed part of the property by the creek is wet and your shoes/boots can get buried in the mud. I'd like to build a large pond less then 1 acre probably closer to 1/2 acre. But I'm totally new to this other then watching many YouTube videos about building ponds. I'd like to have fish.
One thing I really want to do is protect the back of the property from water entering from the creek when it rains which would send it toward the home. Possibly building a Dam (or embankment) at the back of the property to keep water away from the home and acreage and keeping it in the creek where it belongs. Dam probably isn't the best word as it isn't to retain water but to keep it away from the property and keep in the creek. At the top right, it seems all the little streams and creeks lead into a bottleneck right at the back of the property. I know soil is a big factor too.
Any and all comments would be appreciated, not sure if this is for sure "no go" or just a pipe dream.
I would get in touch with the local NRCS office and ask them a few questions. 1) How high will the creek get with a 500 yr flood? 2) How often does the creek flood?
With that information, you can calculate how many yards of dirt you will need for your berm, and that will determine how big of a pond you will need.
The way you have the berm laid out, if the creek gets high enough it can go right around the berm. There is typically a USDA NRCS office in every county.
Be careful. I some jurisdictions, you cannot increase flooding downstream by restricting floodwater from a flood plain. Riparian areas may also have restrictions. Fines can be very high.
Like RAH said, most jurisdictions get way sensitive about their flood plain, and any action within it, a stream buffer they call it, I deal with it pretty regularly doing dirt work. we built a sewage lagoon for a couple in nothing more than a slight valley, the DNR had it designated, on a national data base, that it was in a stream buffer zone, they had to get an engineer to certify that it drained less then 20 acres of water drainage flowed thru that valley and thus was not considered a stream.
Not to mention in a lot of them the dirt is not real conducive to pond building but it can be in other areas, you would need to get it evaluated.
If I am correct, any stream big enough to be named, will be what what they consider a blue line stream, it should show on a topo map of the area, is controlled by COE, those rules have fluctuated in the past several yrs, depending on who is in charge of the country at the time. Hope they will let you do what you want! Good Luck on what you decide.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
Other members have mentioned the legal issues, but trying to have any fish control is almost impossible with uncontrolled rising water. I have a neighbor that built a pond that was absolutely 100% void of fish. Heavy rains hit, and now he's got a pond full of little mud cats.
Assuming TN is similar to TX, each county floodplain office plays this differently. Some require a permit, and some don’t. See if there’s a floodplain manager in your county.
Assuming TN is similar to TX, each county floodplain office plays this differently. Some require a permit, and some don’t. See if there’s a floodplain manager in your county.
That is absolutely true on a local level, they are like nite and day around here, although on a national level, like a COE controlled creek, its more straight forward, but even they are way more lenient in a farming country versus a stream near a bigger municipal area. and to a certain extent, they depend on local jurisdictions to notify them of problems, which obviously rural counties don't do near as much as bigger city ordinances.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
