How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

[JB]

When at full pool my catfish pond has about 5' of water and about 8'-10' of silt accumulated over some 30-50 years. In very dry weather (what else do we get?) it drops to 1'-18" of water. My horses are in peril if they try to slog the silt to get to the water. The downstream side of the dam maxes at about 20' deep.

It drains about 200 acres of badly eroded neighbor's land.

After a strong rain. . . over 2". . . it looks like thin mud. I can clear it by tossing a few bales of hay into it, but round bales are going for $85-$100 this season. :'(

I want to clean it out and restock it, this time including bass and bluegills as well as channel cat and fathead minnows.8)

Now my question. How might I reduce the amount of silt that comes in with the water? Is there some sort of silt trap that I can build upstream?

 

[DJ]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

JB,

Can you build (scoop out) an area for the runoff to settle before it gets to the pond?

 

[i386]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

Around here, man-made lakes/ponds are pretty common. Many are roughly triangular in shape. It's common practice to build a smaller pond that fills up to a pipe that spills over into the big pond. They call it a "catch pond" around here. I believe the idea is the silt (and GA red clay) will settle in the catch pond and fill the big pond with water from near the surface of the catch pond. It's common to see the catch pond start looking less like a pond and more like a big hole with lots of vegetation in it. I believe when they get to that stage it's time to clean them out with a backhoe.

Maybe your new fish will come from the National Fish Hatchery near here. We went there last Sunday. They raise sturgeon there (along with common freshwater fish) which was the last thing I expected to see. Really cool.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

NCRS is the people you need to talk to. They will finaince (sp?) part of it for you. They will more than likely use you existing pond as a catch and build a new one. If nothing else they will tell you what to do. They have professionals on staff and its free to you, your taxes already paid for it.

 

[rwise]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/
search for pond, lots of info

 

[tomatolord]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

I live on a small 18 acre lake that has the same issue. This is what we did.

fix the "silt pond" catch pond, you do not have one so you can make silt weirs instead.

Just make a 1/2 circles of liriope or other grasses to act like filters. It does not have to big thick clumps even just a 1 plant deep is enough to slow the water down. Although I guess you would have issues with horses eating the grasses.

You could build the weirs out of rock if you have enough

The black silt fences you see at constructions sites would also work.

the issue is you have to slow the water down, somehow, for the silt to drop out, somewhere, before the water gets to your pond.

None of these ideas remove 100% they reduce the problem.

The ideal situation would be to grass over the area causing the silting, basically you are moving the hill 1 rain storm at a time.

With all of these solutions you have to maintain them removing the built up silt so the filters can act properly

Now for your pond you have to put in reeds, water lillies or other aquatic plants near the front half where the silt comes in as well. This does 2 things first it again slows the water down for the silt to drop out and 2nd it provides an area for the water daphnae to live,

Water daphnae are very critical part to the life cycle of a pond. The life cycle of a pond goes like this.

algage -->daphnae-->pre-fry/fry-->fish/big fish

If there is no daphane the fry die off and the fish do not have anything to feed on so they become stunted.

Now here in the south it is illegal to discharge silt off of your property I do not know the situation in TX.

If you need more information let me know, there are several articles out there on shallow lake management which is what your pond is.

Tomatolord

 

[bassboy1]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

The catch pond is real popular around here and seems to work well. Check with the laws because your neighbor may be the one responsible for controlling the silt. Around here, If someone doesn't like someone elses silt in their yard it is the silt owners responsiblity to stop it.

 

[bjcsc]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

$100 round bales!! Holy moly I hope thats a 1600# bale. I buy 800's for $45 delivered 10 at a time every two weeks. Might have to bring a semi-full to Texas...

I think it would be a good idea to get your horses away from your pond. Although it seems very natural, ponds are dangerous for horses. I've seen several get stuck, suffocate and/or break bones. Unlike cows, their weight is carried much higher and thus there is more leverage on their legs if they get stuck. Not to mention, in addition to the silt you're collecting, every pesticide and other chemical anyone around you is using/spilling is also ending up in your pond and thus in your horses (and fish) in trace amounts which may or may not reach a toxic level. Waterers are cheap...

 

[JB]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

Lot of differences between Texas and S. Carolina, bjc.

Waterers may be cheap. Water isn't. Watering stock from our coop water system is forbidden. I siphon a few hundred gallons from the gas company's frac. pit into a galvanized tub (with their permission) when the tank get's low enough to be hazardous.

Fortunately the watershed for my pond is unimproved rangeland that grazes beef cattle. No chemicals.

No room for a catchpond. The ingress to my tank is right at my fenceline at full pool. I think I will dig out the silt closest to the ingress and see if that catches most of the heavy silt, at least. The suspended silt takes days to begin to settle unless I have inocculated (sp?) the pond with decaying vegetation microorganisms (bales of hay).

 

[roscoe]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

Is there room to dig a trench between the fence-line and the tank to direct the water off to one side, into a catch-pond, then into the tank?

If no room for a trench, how about room for a levee to direct the water off to the side?


Would the neighbor sacrifice 1/2 acre for use as a filter to catch the sediment, or at least 10' for a levee?


As far as the horses are concerned, a small windmill to pump the water from the pond, to a stock watering trough should get them all the water they need. Then you can fence the pond to keep them safe.

 

[bjcsc]

Re: How to reduce silt ingress to my pond/tank/lake?

JB: Good to hear the water is "clean"...I wonder if you could stake up landscaping fabric like the breaks they use when they develop and work on roads (2' above the ground, 1' below it). A series of them may trap a good bit of the silt as the water passes through. Interesting situation...