Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations pond inflow silt trap

If I remember correctly, Rockytopper was the one who asked the question. He needs to jump in.

Bob

Bruce, Brice, Bob - This Condomello guy is turning into a reguar "Sybil."

To think he accused ME of having multiple personalities!

-Theo, et. al.

What ever happened to Meadowlark?
He's always into this diggin' stuff

Bob Hickendello, I heard he fixed potholes in the road with asphalt and dental floss.

TN Hill- Isn't there a formula for how much liquid, particle size and weight in a given size settling pond it will take to remove the solids. Something like that I remember from school. :p In smaller runs the terraces will be quite effective but on a huge flood there is nothing you can do.

Meadowlark is surely missed in this forum. As you can tell by my answer!

I'm guessing that Meadow is on a fishing trip. He mentioned something about a trip and then writing an article.

-Linus

Hey Linus....
I got a rock

Yes. Meadowlark and Debra are AWOL. I think ML went bonefishing and to some exotic place fishing to give his Georgia Giants time to grow. Deb was sick last time she posted. Help, Debra, this "humor" is killing me.

Burger...
Please hand me that "lamest post on the thread" award. Sorry.

C. Brown-ski

Brettski, don't beat yourself up, man. You can't hit a home run every time.

The 'X-ray of Matt Clark's back' comment was top notch.

Boy I steered the mud with this question. Fields are terraced and direct water into a water way. Grassed Water way has been neglected and now is a tree lined intermittent stream. I plan to create a silt pond above the main pond in the stream. The hickenbottom looks like the way to go to let the silt pond trickle in during the wet season and stream is flowing. I plan to make a natural spillway/terrace and force the flood waters around the silt dam over the terrace. The terrace will be about 100 ft wide 200 ft long and 2 ft tall. I'm thinking I should leave the silt dam open in the middle with out the hickenbottom or drain pipe and let the terrace get covered with a strong stand of grass then close the middle of the silt dam off and install the hickenbottom drain next year. Fescue is already very hardy in the bottom area. I understand it is very good for holding soil in flow areas. The aluminum drop structure has been sized with a 48 inch riser and 30 inch barrel. Emergency spillway is a min of 100 ft wide and currently has 4ft free board. These are preliminary and subject to change as the eng completes there analysis on the main dam. I may also get the NRCS input on the silt dam project.
Sense I started this post I have changed my pond location. The 36 acre property has to streams running thru and 2 pond sites, both would be 4+ surface acres. One stream flows from the south and one from the west on the north end of the property. The pond I described at first is the most econmic and will cover a little more surface area but will not all be inside the property line. The shallow end would be on the neighbors property. He is ok with it cause I'm funding the project. I have decided to build the primary pond on the north end for now. It will all be within the property lines. It will take about 16000 yds to fill the embankment. it has a 300 acre water shed. Here is link to a sketch of the pond sites. Note the little one in the drawing is the south side and is not drawn to it's current staked points. you can see the water line of both it's the 700 ft mark on the topo. http://www.rockytoppers.com/realestate.htm. The photos are looking north at the pond location. Here is a link to terra server location http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.a...Lat=32.1987207. Lets start a little contest. Lets play "If this was your pond project" how would you lay out the fish structure jetteis etc...? If you have a scanner you can use the topo to draw up your idea and then post it. I will pick a winner or a combo of winners and go with that when the dozers and scrapper arrives. Thanks for the advice I will keep all informed as things unfold.

lets try again, the sketch http://www.rockytoppers.com/realestate.htm

Well, that's one monster pond just NE. Probably a good thing it's there to assist regulating the watershed, but what's the prediction if it's full and it's emergency is flowing?...just curious. BTW, nice/generous principal spillway structure.
I can only offer one basic thought, and it pertains to your emergency spillway. You may (or may not) have seen a post I made regarding geotextile fabrics. There is a product noted within that post that could be a consideration to stabilize the vegetation at the emergency.
Geotextile Fabrics

The lake is down stream. it is a 35 acre flood control lake. The NRCS says that during a 100 year flood it could back water almost to my pond locations. The previous owner says he's only seen the lake go over it's emergency spillway once and the water didn't reach my property. There is also another large lake next to the 35 acre lake. They share the same spillway. It has a nice fishing log cabin on it's shores. Last year during a 7 inch rain that lake filled up and changed form a 15 acre lake to about a 100 acre lake and there was nothing but the top of that cabin sticking above the waterline.

I am no expert in design or pond construction, but I thought I would give some information on the lake design we have from a highly engineered lake that required state permit and wetlands mitigation. The lake design includes a continuos dirt berm around the lake that channels runoff to large "flats" in the lake proper. These have been designed with a gradual slope of from zero to 24" across a 1/2 acre flat. These areas contain aquatic wetlands plants that absorb excess nutrients as well as drop out silt. The aeas above and with-in the berms have been planted with bermuda grass to act to drop out silt as well. The idea is to allow siltation to take place outside of the lake, allowing for periodic rebuild of the berms with this silt. This also allows for water to migrate through the berms during light rain runoff through a terrace affect, to further clarify the water. Excess runoff flows across the mitigation areas, and wetland plants use nutrients and provide bait fish habitat.

Rockytopper,

All of the above mentioned ideas are great.

I thought I'd also throw my $.02 in here, too. I think the best idea for silt trapping in your case is a siltation pond (one that is upstream and designed to catch silt and be easily dredged.

If space is an issue, we also construct "sedimentation basins" that (through a lot of engineering) catch silt as head reduces and velocities slow to a point where they begin to fall out of solution and into this basin located at the bottom of the pond or lake.

Both of these methods allow for easy removal of silt when the time arrives.