Propper pond construction

[AmericanLandMgt]

I currently have a pond on my property that I am going to expand to a little less than two acres. As it sits now its about fifty by one hundred feet. Right now it is attached to the ditch that runs out to the highway and I am wondering if this is the best way to have it layed out. It seems like during periods of light rain my pond level is maintained by the ditch. But when we get tons and tons of rain I am wondering if the municipal ditches are actually filling up my pond.

The property is flat as a board and the ground water is only a few feet deep if that makes any difference. My goal for the pond is to drain away some of the surface water and to make the land a little more usable.

I don't do a lot of pond work so I don't even really know where to start to make it a propper functioning pond instead of just a hole in the ground. Any advice you guys have will be greatly appreciated.

 

[joispoi]

I don´t know what the layout of your land is, but if your intention is to dry up you land, the most efficient way to do it is to dig some ditches and direct the water away from the surface before it runs above grade to get to your pond or wherever it drains off to. Your network of ditches could be laid out to flow into your pond or it could be installed independently depending on the lay of your land and the elevations that you have to work with.

How much distance do you currently have between your pond and the standing water? Unless you use the spoil to raise the grade, I would expect to have standing water the same distance from the waters edge when all is said and done. Can you direct water away from your pond?

 

[AmericanLandMgt]

The land is a triangle shape that has the road on one very short side and a creek running along the long backside. I started out with digging several ditches along the driveway and attaching them to the road ditch. This seemed to help a lot. I need more dirt to raise the grade on some of the lower areas so I started digging the pond and it filled up to level with the surrounding dirt as soon as I stopped digging. I decided to attach the ditch that runs to the road to the pond to drain off a few feet of water and it worked really well. My intention is to dig a series of ditches accross the property connecting the pond and the roadway ditches and the creek. My only concern is that the middle of the land is lower than the road ditches and I dont want my place to collect all of the water running in the roadway ditches and in the creek when we get a lot of rain. So I guess I should rephrase my question and ask if it is better to run the ditches into the creek and the road ditches or is it better to just dig my pond and run my ditches to the pond?

Also the ditches that I do have stay full of water and I would like for them to be empty most of the time. Is it better to dig realy deep ditches to absorb as much ground water as possible or to dig shallow ditches that slowly drop to the level of the bottom of the road way ditches?

Ive been just trying different things to see what works well but having some experienced insight would be really appreciated.

 

[CM1995]

So I guess I should rephrase my question and ask if it is better to run the ditches into the creek and the road ditches or is it better to just dig my pond and run my ditches to the pond?

Without being able to see your property first hand it makes it difficult to give advice. I am no expert pond builder but it sounds like a properly functioning overflow and emergency spillway would help your problem. Drain as much as you can into the pond and let it go through the overflow and exit your property, if that's possible.

 

[SE-Ia Cowman]

Have you ever thought of tile? We install hundreds of thousands of feet every year to lower the water table in farm fields with very good sucess. I dont know anything about north carolina soils but tile on 30 or 40 ft centers would eliminate a lot of ditches and you would be able to farm the whole thing.