Ok.... I decided to reach out to my local Soil, Water Conservation District folks for some more ideas.... I hope to have them come out in the next day or so as I will be using my 300GPM pump to hopefully pump the pond dry until I can come up with a solution.....
But, one of the things they mentioned after I spoke with them and sent them the pics is that I need approx. 25" of freeboard above the pipe, (which I knew I needed at least 18"), but when I asked about putting a bigger pipe in they said this one could possibly handle the watershed but b/c of the low freeboard there was not enough hydraulic head pressure to allow the pipe to run at full capacity... does this make sense. or sound right?
Also in building up the dam, I know it would be BEST to have a dozer or tractor with a sheepshead roller.. BUT, since I do not have either... Do you think I could add to the dam with just using my tractor and backhoe, and then using it's weight to compress the soil? It weighs between 5500 and 6000 lbs with the backhoe. The SWCD folks said you should only layer about 6" at a time on the dam and then compress it, which sounds right... just didn't know it others have built their dams just using the weight of the tractor to compress it. I am running R4 industrial tires on the tractor as well. Plus I am a little concerned at building it higher but not being able to make it much wider... of course if all here feel it would be better to just hire a dozer for a day to build up the dam and repair the it then that's what I will probably do... although I am still not sure if I do not want to put at least a 20" or 24" pipe in place of the current 18"... would hate to go to all that trouble of building up the dam to accommodate more freeboard and then find out that the 18" with a anti-vortex plate and more freeboard still is unable to handle the watershed.
