Pond cleaning with excavator

[Welder Dave]

Is that ice in the pond?

 

[Shimmy1]

 

[Shimmy1]

Is that ice in the pond?

Water

 

[Welder Dave]

It kind of looked like there was some ice. Optical illusion I guess.

 

[CM1995]

Not cleaning, but this one will take a minute.View attachment 290394View attachment 290395View attachment 290396

How deep did you have to sink the HDPE temp dewatering pipe?

 

[Shimmy1]

How deep did you have to sink the HDPE temp dewatering pipe?

It's only about a 4' long pipe, so it's down about 3'. Getting that pipe down, and getting rock around it is the only way to pump the water off. Any kind of a hole just fills up with sand. The rock even plugs up with sand, we've had to dig down a foot or so around the pipe by hand a couple times and get clean rock back around it so the water can filter through. That sump pump runs for about 4 minutes out of every 5, on for two, off for one, etc.

 

[Welder Dave]

Can you get trash or semi-trash sump pumps to better handle sand? I have a Watermaster floating pump that will handle anything that fits through 1" holes including sludge. It has about 70 of them. On a pond like that it would work really good if you could dig a low spot to set it in. It's only 6HP but pumps 700gal./minute. It uses 6" lay flat hose. Farmers use them for drying their fields and apparently they're also used to harvest cranberries. It doesn't hurt it if it runs out of water which is great.

 

[Shimmy1]

210 has still got it. Not as pretty as some, this one was big and wet. Had a 3" pump running for 12 hours and couldn't get the water pumped out. Lots of ice and runny muck to contend with as well. Oh well. Come spring it will look amazing lol.

 

[Welder Dave]

Does it help when the ground is partly frozen?

 

[Shimmy1]

Does it help when the ground is partly frozen?

Sometimes. This one should have been cleaned back in '21 when we were dry.

 

[Lagwagon]

210 has still got it. Not as pretty as some, this one was big and wet. Had a 3" pump running for 12 hours and couldn't get the water pumped out. Lots of ice and runny muck to contend with as well. View attachment 299782View attachment 299783Oh well. Come spring it will look amazing lol.

do you have the 290 there for reach and use the 210 to sidecast (transfer) the dirt further from the pond into a windrow?

 

[Shimmy1]

do you have the 290 there for reach and use the 210 to sidecast (transfer) the dirt further from the pond into a windrow?

I pulled the original spoil banks back with it, then it sat up high and bailed the muck over the bank as I pulled it out of the water. I'm not sure it would have been able to get down in as far as I did with the 210, and the extra reach even if it could wouldn't have given any kind of tactical advantage anyway. My guys don't get to spend much time in the big hoe, so I let him do the easy job since I needed to be the one doing the dirty work anyway.

 

[Simon C]

Is your Case 210 a regular stick or long stick. Great photos by the way.
Simon C

 

[Shimmy1]

Is your Case 210 a regular stick or long stick. Great photos by the way.
Simon C

Whatever the standard length is, like 9'8" maybe?

 

[Simon C]

Have cleaned one septic pond with a little Cat 304 CR. Took about 12 hours, and I was constantly having to go behind the spoil piles to move them further back. A trench like you did would of definitely helped.
Have learned a lot from your experience and the comments from others. Your pictures help put ideas into my head of better ways to do things. Keep up the good work and pictures.
Simon C