I live in rural WI and I've been having issues with my neighbor's pond that sits very close to my property line. I believe it may be flooding my yard.
The pond is approximately 120' in diameter, unsure of depth.
There is a berm around the pond which obviously holds in the water but the other side of the berm drops off which is where my yard begins. The issue is that my yard is a few feet below the water level in the pond. This has bothered me since the day I bought the house because I typically have poor drainage (heavy clay soil in the area and very high water table) and my yard is always a soup bowl. The level of the pond fluctuates a foot or so but it is always above my yard in height even at it's lowest. When it rains a lot, it fills almost up to the brim and my yard becomes mush for a few weeks.
The house was moved to this lot and a lot of earth moving occurred to make the property what it is today. Am I justified to wonder how this was overlooked?
Additionally, what would be the best route for me to take in rectifying this issue? I am on good terms with my neighbor so I'm open to suggestions that involve modifying the pond mechanics. The only issue is that two other sides of the pond is higher ground and the third side is restricted property (railroad right-of-way) so the only way to drain would be into my yard. I could drain my way but it would be about 200' to the drainage ditch in the front yard.
I've searched other posts but I haven't found any that address the situation of a pond level being higher than the yard level.
Is there any chance of you digging a pond on your property where all the water is?
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
I don't foresee that happening. Not enough space and it would probably be cheaper to have topsoil brought in to raise yard. The idea is to do something that's minimally invasive that won't require 10k in landscaping work. Thanks though.
I like Sunil's idea. If you want a pond on your property, you already have abundant "free" water. (We are biased in favor of ponds here!)
If you have heavy clay soils and want to get rid of the water, then your only feasible solution may be to send that water further downslope. It sounds like that may be across a long stretch of your yard and into the drainage ditch?
Farmers used to move excess water out of their heavy clay soil fields using drain tiles. The modern version of that is flexible corrugated pipe. (Usually 4" or 6" in diameter.) That stuff is pretty cheap at Menard's, etc.
One solution is to excavate a shallow trench adjacent to the pond. Install perforated pipe with a sock, and then back fill with aggregate/gravel to create a french drain. Keep trenching all of the way to your drainage ditch and connect your perforated pipe to regular pipe to transmit all of the excess water to your drainage ditch.
Does your house have a basement? If so, I would run some laterals from around your house and tee into the main line to the ditch. Might as well take some pressure off of your basement walls if you are already doing the work.
You can usually rent a walk-behind trencher pretty cheap at your local rental place. If you have clay soils, the trench should remain open while you do your pipe installation. If you are moderately handy, you could do it over a weekend. If not, maybe get a bid from some guys in the area that install sprinklers. They might be able to do a good job inexpensively?
The legal questions are more difficult. IF his pond was NOT built according to code, then you could probably win a legal case to get the work done in your yard at his expense. However, you might not recover your legal fees - which would be much more than the drain pipe installation fees!
If his pond was built according to code, but "leaks" a little into your yard, then that would IMO be a very difficult case for you to win.
(I am not a lawyer, but my wife is. That is far from her specialty, but she has done some property law.)
If you build your drain system, and his pond no longer stays full, then he definitely has a leak onto your property. Even a 4" drainage line in your yard will be enough to drain his pond - if his leak rate is high enough.
Does your yard dry out after a few weeks of no rain, but his pond is still holding water? If that is the case, it may just be that the slope of his berm sends a little more surface runoff into a low spot in your yard.
Not a lawyer - but you fixing drainage problems on your property that negatively impacts his pond should not result in liability for you. But anyone can basically sue for anything these days. They do not have to be right, just you ending up in court is a punishment all by itself!
I hope that gives you a few more ideas about fixing the problem. Without eyeballs on the actual situation, some of my assumptions are almost certainly incorrect.
I would probably just fix the problem myself and improve the drainage right up against my house foundation at the same time.
My neighbor is a cool dude who does a lot for me so legal action isn't something that's on the table...yet.
I recall seeing, at the very least, a stand pipe in the pond for overflow drainage so perhaps it is just clogged or something. Although I'm not really sure where this pipe would lead to since my yard is the only low spot. I suppose I'll have to walk over there this week and ask him some questions. My main goal is to simply limit the level of the pond first. If that isn't possible or doesn't yield any results, the next step will be to make some trenches in my yard.
I have looked into a diy or even a prefab french drain in the past but I would need about 250' of it and that sounds pretty ridiculous. The french drains are nice but I'm not sure I want a swathe of gravel cutting down the center of my yard. I am leaning more towards a nonporous pvc pipe connected to two or three exposed drainage grates at ground level since my rainwater runoff follows a distinct path and usually ends up in the same spot, along with the water I believe to be coming from the pond. I'd still need 250' of pipe but the non-perforated should be much cheaper and my back will thank me for sparing it from shoveling 5 tons of gravel.
I wasn't clear on my description, but you got it anyway.
You only need a "french drain" water infiltration section in the low spots. You can run solid (flexible) pipe for the rest of your total drain length. You definitely do not need tons of gravel.
I doubt your neighbor will want to lower the normal elevation of the pond. Usually a pond is designed to have its "best look" and amenities at the full pool water elevation.
The standpipe is a bit of a mystery. That outlet pipe must transfer water somewhere. Perhaps he ran a pipe section all of the way to the drainage ditch?
