Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Stand pipe rusted - need repairman - Seneca SC

Our 20 year old community pond has a simple system. Stainless 6.5" pipe through dam with rusted valve and 6" rusted stand pipe. Emergency spillway not over dam.

We have an 18" sleeve maybe 10' long hanging on top of the stand pipe. Looks stainless. I am assuming this is to bring bottom water up and out stand pipe.

Noticed water level going down.

The stand pipe at top is rusted and the heavy sleeve is crushing rusted pipe. Stand pipe is perforated at top.

Using a go-pro I examined stand pipe and it appears in good shape coming up from bottom. Possibly stainless. Don't know what you call it but curly pipe like corrugated but more like augger (obviously for strength)

I trimmed some videos and got snapshots. Posted on my google drive. Here is the link.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Jpj0_tauVQNc2c2iUhYqxmS3SkYpKkGz?usp=drive_link


Hoping someone can lift off sleeve, find where stand pipe is good, cut it off and add new section to full pool level.

Probably replace sleeve with simpler trash guard.

The old gate valve is below the silt level and the control and rod are rusted, rod is thread thin in places. not planning to fix valve.

If there is someone near Seneca SC that can fix this please reply.

PS: I'm a scuba diver and can help. I'm hoping we can temporarily plug outflow on outside of dam, fix pipe with water in place... might be dreaming, but willing to help.

Welcome to the forum. Get a magnet, scrape off the bio film and see if the magnet sticks to it. While some stainless is magnetic, typically in-water stainless steel is non-magnetic (like type 316) because they are more resistant to corrosion than magnetic types of stainless steel.

To me it looks like typical galvanized steel culvert pipe. The ridges give it away. I really, really think you are going to have to drain it so the repair section is out of the water. If the pipe going through the dam is the corrugated galvanized pipe then the best fix is to drain pond down below the pipe, dig it out and replace it with heavy wall plastic or with regular steel (not thin galvanized) pipe.

Look here for some options on material and supplies.

The pressure of the water in the pond exerts a tremendous pressure on the pipe if you plug it. It would be a dangerous situation if someone was there cutting the pipe and the plug broke free. People have been "pinned" to the pipe due to the water pressure, and if they are underwater, they could drown.

I've heard that these types of corrugated piping used for water control levels are usually either galvanized carbon steel (cheaper) or aluminum (more expensive, and less subject to corrosion).

I had the exact same problem on a 40-year-old pond. The solution for me was to put in a PVC syphon system and have the existing pipe filled with concrete. This can be done without draining any water from your pond.

The fact that the pipe his only 6 to 7 inches I do believe that will be a pretty good, and cost effective solution in his case.
Im with Essup, I don't think you are dealing with stainless steel pipe, appears to be just regular corrugated galvanized culvert pipe which unfortunately has a habit of rusting out faster then one would think.

Not sure that I understand the valve thing unless it is in front of the horizontal section of the pipe to allow for draining down of the water level, somebody put a lot of work into that back in the day, it also appears the overflow pipe goes straight down to a lower level then horizontally out thru the bottom of the dam, but its hard to tell for sure.

Either way I would fill it in with concrete well below the pond bottom and start completely over, with either a syphon system or a conventional overflow pipe, both of which can be installed by lowering the water level minimally. to replace the current one it appears the pond would need to be pretty much emptied to work on it.


Good Luck!